Lilley of the field

Mmm... this one was too good not to share. It's my first pureed soup. Amazing if I may say so myself. Aaron and Morgan agreed. Total cook time: 1 hour and 15 minutes. Ingredients: 1 butternut squash 1 tart apple 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed 1 small onion, chopped 2 large garlic cloves, chopped 3 carrots, peeled and sliced 2 T. butter 3 c. chicken broth (or veggie broth for a fully vegetable soup) 1 c. half and half olive oil salt and pepper dash of cayenne pepper 1/2 t. curry powder 1 t. dried sage dash of cinnamon Directions: Cut the butternut squash into 4 sections and lay on a cookie sheet. Cover with olive oil and salt and pepper and roast for 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees or until soft. Meanwhile, melt butter in large dutch oven. Add onion, garlic, sweet potato, and carrots. Saute for 10-15 minutes until a little brown. Add 3 cups chicken broth and apples and bring to boil. Remove the butternut squash, scoop it out of the skin, chop roughly a...

Not to toot my own horn... but this could have been served in a Thai restaurant in my opinion. Now, I wouldn't call myself a Thai food connoisseur, but this is some really good stuff. And easy too. Dinner was made in 30 minutes and it would serve 4 people. 2 chicken breast, cubed 1 can coconut milk 1 large clove garlic, minced 1/4 onion, chopped few shakes of cumin seed, turmeric, and curry powder (the more the better probably) little bit of soy sauce 1 1/2 T. peanut butter 4 leaves basil, chopped Saute garlic and onion in olive oil. Add chicken. Cook about 10 minutes. Add spices. Add coconut milk. Add soy sauce and peanut butter. Warm up and serve. Sprinkle some fresh chopped basil on top and wah lah! We put it over sauteed cabbage and jasmine rice. I wish I had a picture, but you'll have just to use your imagination.

I got the craving to bake tonight. I was feeling restless and thought, "Well I'll bake on this gray evening and listen to some wonderful music." I should also tell you we bought groceries last Saturday together and are trying to make it 2 weeks without going to the grocery store. That can be a difficult feat since Bi-Lo is literally a walk from our house. So we are getting down to the last things in our fridge... hope we can make it to the weekend. So I felt like cookies would be a good option since we just ran out of ice cream. Terrible, I know. Well all the regular recipes call for 1 c. butter. That's absurb. Two sticks butter? Not only is that too much butter, but we don't have 2 sticks currently. But... we did have cottage cheese, which I put in our banana bread the other day and it was delicious. So here are my healthy chocolate chip cookies. I will compare the measurements to the regular cookie measurement on the back of a Laura Lynn chocolate chip bag. ...

So we planted basil and now we have a ton of it! So I looked up some recipes for pesto and then made my own. Pesto (makes about 1 1/2 cups) 3 c. packed basil leaves 1 c. chopped walnuts 2 large cloves garlic, chopped 3/4 c. grated parmesan cheese 3/4 c. olive oil salt and pepper Put the walnuts in a dry frying pan and roast on low. Be careful to keep and eye on it and keep turning them. I burned a few and had to pick through them to remove the burnt ones! Put the basil, walnuts, cheese, garlic, and salt and pepper in food processor and pulse until smooth. Then add olive oil by drizzling it in the top part of the food processor while it's on! Delicious! You can apparently freeze it as well for a few months. The walnuts are WAY cheaper than pine nuts and just a good. Really! Also, I added about a teaspoon of the pesto to 4 tablespoons of softened butter, mixed it up, and put it back in the fridge. Can't wait to put it on bread tonight :)

This sauce is inspired by the blueberry chipotle ribs at 12 Bones Smokehouse in Ashville, NC. We went there on our honey moon and it was incredible food! It was so epic we took a picture of it... Since we have a surplus of blueberries this season after picking them from the Happy Berry Farm and getting some from my parents, I had to find something unique to use them for. So here you have it... 1 c. blueberries 1 small garlic clove 1 sliver of an onion (a sliver meaning a crosswise section, slice things) 2 slices jalepenos (you can add more if you want... I'd say it has medium spicy with 2) 2 spoonfuls of brown sugar 3-4 splashes liquid smoke 1 squeeze ketchup 2 shakes of soy sauce little salt Puree the first four ingredients in a food processor. Transfer to a small skillet. Bring to boil and add other ingredients. Let sit on med-high heat for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and let sit until thickened. I'd say it makes about...

So this is my first food post. I decided it was too good not to share. And very summery. (If only I'd taken pictures... you just have to trust now that it tastes good without any visuals). Also, if you don't have these herbs and live near us... come get them in our garden!!! I looked up a lot of recipes online and then made these up myself so they are Kim-riginal. Lime and Cilantro Greek Yogurt Dip 1 c. greek yogurt plain 1 lime, juiced 1 handful of cilantro, chopped a few mint leaves, chopped a drizzle of honey salt and pepper Mix it all together. Zest about a quarter of the lime into the mixture. We ate it for my birthday with sweet potato fries sprinkled with chili powder and cinnamon. I think it would also go well on top of chicken or pork. Maybe with raw veggies like carrots and celery? Also good with regular tortilla chips. We also put it in our "neo-southwestern" (according to Aaron) fajitas with sauteed chicken, onion, and bell peppers. Delicious...