 I can tell Fall has arrived due to cooler temperatures and shorter days. I can also tell by my habit of pulling out my Long Nights and Log Fires cookbook with “warming comfort food for family and friends.” It covers everything from soups to casual meals perfect for a meal that will warm your soul. I also noticed Big Guy has his habit as well. As Happy Hour approached, I noticed he had a lovely stack of books and a new bottle of Bushmills single malt Irish whiskey next to his chair. We turned on the fireplace, grabbed some blankets and settled in for the perfect night of light reading, Irish whiskey, and great conversation. Perfect! 
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 I find it interesting that the most common question today is “have you traveled” anywhere interesting? I think it may be replacing the question about my high school. The look of surprise is always comical as we tend to talk about places in the greater St. Louis area that we have discovered on our day trips instead of an exotic trip. We took this pause to refocus on our city and celebrate the people who have created new experiences or recovered from the ashes of COVID. We recently decided to go the Wine Down Wednesdays event at Oliva Café and The Hill Antique Market. It is obviously not a secret as folks came out early for a lovely evening with family and friends. We enjoyed music, wine, flat bread pizza and hummus on the patio followed by a leisurely walk through the antique mall. It was the perfect experience with outstanding service which gave us more satisfaction and happy memories than traveling 1,000 miles from home.
 I have mentioned my love of toast especially as the weather turns cooler. Most people are traditional and want jam with their toast. Get ready to call the nutrition police, but as the Big Guy put the bread in the toaster, I piped up that I wanted my favorite childhood topping of mixed sugar and cinnamon covering the melted butter on my slice.
If I were to put money on the table, I bet it was my mom’s favorite as well. She was perpetually on one diet or another, but she firmly believed if you were going to cheat it had to be at breakfast, so you had all day to work off the calories. How else did I learn to love ice cream for breakfast!  I have never been shy about my love of martinis made with Tanqueray gin. When we first got married, the Big Guy thought I just loved gin-soaked olives since my glass was usually filled with more olives than ice and gin.
Times have changed a little bit as I do not always have olives in my martini. When I do, my favorite indulgence is blue cheese stuffed olives made with a fresh jar of pitted olives and blue cheese. I do realize you can buy them from the store, but this is one time it is best to stuff your own olives. The best part about the resurgence of cocktails is the various flavors coming out to enhance your cocktails which is why I am now mixing up my drink routine. Think Rangpur when you want additional lime flavor for your Tanqueray and tonic known here as a T and T. Think Tanqueray Orange to put extra special in an orange blossom special. It is fun to play with your drinks as much as it is to mix up new foods in your kitchen. Have fun with it and create your own signature cocktail to impress your friends!  I am working my way through the various butternut squash recipes, but I had to make ravioli starring a filling made of butternut squash. The Big Guy and I first had it at Lorenzo’s, and it was delicious.
I knew the kitchen would be a disaster zone once we got finished, but we were determined to put the Carondelet Kitchen spin on it. I started by roasting the butternut squash with olive oil and garlic. Once baked, I pureed the squash with parmesan cheese, dried sage, salt, pepper, and more olive oil. We bought some ravioli cutters but found we only needed small drops of the mixture to make the ravioli without it exploding out the case. I did a quick freeze of the ravioli on a sheet pan then wrapped them up into serving sizes to pull out of the freezer for a quick dinner. We only need to make a quick brown butter sauce with sage, pine nuts and parmesan cheese to complete the meal. I am looking forward to a cooler night to make this special meal!  I have been making butternut squash soup for a couple of years, but I admit I always dread cutting up the darn squash. I have my method, but it does take effort even if you roast it whole to soften up the skin.
I have been making Ina Garten’s recipe with apples and onions roasted with the butternut squash. She adds a kick of curry to give it some heat as you puree the vegetables into a lovely soup. But just my luck this soup is a favorite with the kids who decided to challenge me to make a version like one served in a local restaurant. It is certainly sweeter and creamier, so I am off to do some research. I will win!  I really do not know how I went so many years without a Kitchen Aid. The irony is I long ago got rid of my hand mixer and now I need another one for baking. Who knew! In the case of making pasta, my Kitchen Aid is the expert piece of equipment in my kitchen. I was able to mix up the dough with my dough hook, add on my pasta roller and finally attempt making pasta. Full disclosure is I have had the pasta attachment for a couple of years but that darn job of mine did not give me time to even think about making my own assortment of pasta. I could also blame living in St. Louis where a quick trip to the Hill will give me excellent selections and no fuss in my kitchen. The good news is no one on the Hill ought to worry about me taking over the world. I need more practice to get it right, but until then, I am having fun!   I grew up in a house where my mom loved to look at recipes but did not really want to follow the copious steps to the final meal. “It is good enough” or “it will taste the same” were her two mantras. Do not get me started on her fast-food recipe book where it claimed she could make a Big Mac better than the restaurant!
I found myself almost falling into her mantra when I started to bake things other than cookies. We never had bread flour, yeast, or semolina in our house. Does it really matter? The obvious answer is yes. Now I just need to figure out how to store these additional ingredients in my limited pantry!  Big Guy and I have always been fascinated with the art of making bread. Unfortunately, we were always hesitant to make it from scratch because it seemed we kept failing at it. Two classic failures were killing the yeast and the bread dough remaining flat.
Emboldened with watching baking shows, we became determined to get past our fear of bread. We opted to make a focaccia bread as it seemed relatively easy but needed plenty of time for the various stages of resting needed for the dough to rise. We are retired, so the time element was not an issue! After buying the specific ingredients in the recipe, we were ready to go. We pulled out the Kitchen Aid, added the bread hook, and got to work. Several hours later, we were rewarded with our first attempt of a simple focaccia with flaked sea salt. It was delicious and has inspired us to consider adding other ingredients when we try it again!  The Big Guy asked me if I wanted an Egg McMuffin. My first reaction was do you really want to go to Mickey D’s? Silly me, as I should have known he was offering to make his version of the breakfast sandwich. Yes, please! He made the perfect eggs and sautéed ham to add to the perfectly toasted English muffin. The addition of cheese made the perfect homage to a fast-food favorite. It was a good thing he made the breakfast as things really got cooking in the Carondelet Kitchen. I will tease you with homemade bread, ravioli, and soup. Two of the three items starred a vegetable from the Carondelet Garden which I will share in my blogs throughout the week.  |
AuthorJust a super cool old couple who love to cook and eat and drink in their Carondelet Kitchen in South Saint Louis, Missouri! Archives
October 2024
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