Pumpkin Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Put down your pumpkin pies, your pumpkin cakes, your pumpkin breads, and your pumpkin muffins. Why not try something new this fall? Something new being pumpkin used in a savory manner, rather than adding the "normal" sugar and pumpkin pie spice. 

I looooooove pumpkin in savory dishes. I'd actually never tried it until 2 years ago when I made Turkey Pumpkin Chili. I don't know if I was expecting my chili to taste like pumpkin pie, but it sooooooo did not. I was instantly hooked on the savory pumpkin 🎃

Enchilada Stuffed Poblanos

So... funny story.

I'd always thought poblanos were mild peppers. I'd never cooked them before, I'd just read recipes using them, plus I've had them in Mexican cuisine. I'd just never prepared them myself. Well, a couple of weeks ago, with the hubby gone on a business trip, I decided to stuff a bunch of peppers for quick, easy dinners while he was gone. While I normally stuff regular bell peppers, this time I opted for poblanos. I've been trying to grow poblanos all season, but my plant never fruited. It blossomed plenty, but no luck. Darn it all. My father-in-law's did though, so we received peppers from him throughout the season. It was just a lousy season for any kind of pepper at my homestead. 

Recipe Redux: Tortellini Pepperoncini Salad

It's been a stormy morning y'all.

The hubby woke me up at 6 this morning to let me know a monster storm was on the way. I roused myself from slumber, shuffled my way to the den window that faces the northwest, and took a peep. Oh yeah, I could see the storm coming. I could see the lighting from miles away! We are prone to losing power out here in the country with these big wind storms, so I booked it to the coffee machine. I brewed 2 cups before the storm hit. I figured if I lost power at least I would have a 2nd cup of coffee, even if it turned out to be lukewarm. Lukewarm caffeine is better than none I figured :-)

Cherry Berry Power Smoothies

Let's talk smoothies.

I don't post a lot of smoothies. In my mind, they could be considered one of those things that doesn't even need a recipe. I always tend to hesitantly publish smoothie recipes, bracing myself for anyone that might comment that smoothies are hardly recipes. People do make those comments! Just the other day, (no names, y'all) a blogger posted a strawberry parfait that really was just strawberries layered with piped whipped cream, and someone left a comment on her post saying "Um, when did strawberries and whipped cream become a recipe?". I hate seeing comments like that. I mean, for one, even if I was thinking that myself, I would never say it. We all work way too hard on posts to be harassed by mean-spirited comments. And two, I started wondering if people thought that about my recipes.

It's a slippery slope. 

Lasagna with Spicy Sausage & Spinach

Let's just continue our journey of around-the-world cuisine, shall we?

I was all set to blog about muffins this morning, and then did an abrupt 360º at the last minute. I mean, I already posted cupcakes this week, and what are muffins but slightly less sweet cupcakes? Plus, I jibber-jabbered all day yesterday about my world-traveling recipes so why not expound on that?

My thoughts exactly :-)

Enchilada Stacks

-with chicken, black beans, spinach, and pepper jack cheese

Just call me "The Globetrotting Eater"!

I'm doing pretty good this month. An Asian recipe, a Greek recipe, a cupcake recipe (you gotta throw one of those in every now and then), and now a Mexican recipe. I'm spanning the world over here! 

Variety is good, yes? I think so. I know lots of people who eat the same foods, day after day, year after year, for their entire lives. Never getting outside the box. While it's true, I could and do eat certain foods everyday (hello turkey sandwiches!), I need diversity. There's something amazing and life-changing about discovering a new food that you've never tried before. It's almost like falling in love.

Greek Pizza

Happy Friday all!

I really did try to blog yesterday, to ensure I got my normal 3-a-week in. However, yesterday was a morning (or rather afternoon) that I got one of those steroid shots in my back. And I'm not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight before the procedure. That includes coffee. 

So I sat down to write yesterday and was heartily displeased to see all the existential, angsty sentences that my caffeine challenged-creativity managed to cough up. Whiny, here. Gloom and doom, there. All because Jessica's brain was without it's normal amount of coffee. Eventually, I erased everything I wrote and said, "Tomorrow then!"

Spicy Sesame Beef Rice Bowls

What, what? It's January, and I've already posted as many Asian-style recipes this month as I did all of last year? (That would be 2!)

I told you guys I was going to get more Asian dishes on the table, and what do you know? Another for the books! You are going to love these rice bowls. There is soooooo much delicious flavor, and guess what? A ton of veggies! I have to ask myself, what's not to like about these bowls? Crisp red and yellow peppers, tender spinach, flavorful marinated sirloin, plus crunchy wanton strips, sesame seeds, and plenty of dressing? 

Sign me up! 

25 Pasta Recipes

Hey-o!

Happy Day-After Christmas folks! Did everyone have a great holiday with lots of friends and family? We sure did! Due to the holiday festivities yesterday, there was little time for blogging. The hubby and I have been go, go, GO! for the last couple of days. I'm definitely feeling it, and am ready for life to slow down just a bit. We've got our niece and nephew staying the night with us tonight, but come Monday, I should have some alone time. We aren't even planning anything for New Year's Eve, thank goodness. At the top of the list of my least favorite holidays you would have New Year's Eve. I'm always so-done with the holidays and usually 5 lbs overweight by the time it rolls around. This year, we are staying in. The more you progress into your 30's, the less you care about going out. Missing out on something. Not being in the pictures the next day. All the things that mattered so much in your 20's? Eh. I take em' or leave em' now.

Spinach & Mushroom Stuffed Peppers

Hello friends! Up on deck today, a vegetarian stuffed pepper. Filled to the brim with marinara sauce, rice, spinach, mushrooms, panko, and of course, cheese! These are a great alternative to the standard stuffed pepper that is usually filled with a meat mixture. Use leftover rice, and you've really got yourself a meal that seems like it would take a long time but actually comes together very fast.

Autumn in Kentucky: October 2015

Hola! I'm here with a Saturday post to show you some beautiful October leaves here in Kentucky.

This (above) was the view of the road right after leaving my house. That is, until the leftovers of Hurricane Patricia went through the area, viciously taking down those oh-so-gorgeous October leaves we had going on. Well, boo to you Hurricane Patricia. We were having the most beautiful fall that I can remember around here. 

That could be because 2 years ago, we spent October in Oregon and last year we spent the last 2 weeks of October in Mexico... Hmmm...

At any rate, the hillsides have been awash of gold and red, with the occasional evergreen poking out here and there. If I were to go back and take pictures today (these were taken last weekend), everything would look vastly different. Plus, they would all be gloomy and gray and who wants to look at those right??

Chicken, Spinach, and Mushroom Melts

I love sandwiches. Love, love, love them. Before this summer and my guacamole-a-thon, I had been on a sandwich kick for a long time. A long, long time, eating a sandwich every day for lunch. I can't explain this behavior, it just is. I get stuck on something, and then I eat it. And eat it, and eat it, and eat it. Pretty much until I'm sick of it. So happened with my turkey sandwich. Here's the thing about my sandwich kicks- they last a long time and they always come back. When I lived in Oregon, I spent most of 2009 on a sandwich kick. The building I worked at had a cafeteria where I found the most magical turkey sandwich. I ate it almost every day that year. Yep, I'm that weirdo. 

What I Learned In My 2nd Year of Gardening

Well, I think it's time.

I officially put the garden to bed yesterday. Actually, I did most of the work on Friday before our first heavy frost. I was at the gym, walking on the treadmill, minding my own business when the local garden guy came on the news. He advised getting any vegetables you might have in the garden, out of the garden before the cold weather. I still had a few tomatoes and peppers on the vines, so I got to work. 

I pulled the last few green tomatoes, and put them in closed paper bags in the basement. They'll be ripe in a couple of weeks, and that will be a nice treat. I pulled up the tomato and pepper plants, and added them to the compost. 

Two Tomato & Roasted Pepper Orzo Salad

What is it about roasted peppers? How does the humble bell pepper go from "Eh" to "Oh Yeah!" with just a quick turn in the oven? I'll never know, but this is a universal truth- You can take a ho-hum veggie that people seem to either love or hate (seriously, there's not a lot of in between) and turn it into gourmet perfection, all with the flick of an oven dial. Roasting peppers changes everything. The taste, the texture, the smell of your home... Peppers roasting in the oven is one of my favorite smells. I think it's because it reminds me of the Olive Garden and all those years I spent ordering Sausage Rustica, or penne with roasted peppers, thinly sliced onions, and smoked sausage, all cooked in spicy marinara. It was one of my favorite dishes. 

May in the Jarrell Garden

-plus an announcement!

Good morning, and happy Wednesday!

I know I've been away all week, and I apologize. It's been a fairly busy sort of week, between getting the garden going, keeping up with the lawn, and oh yeah, raising a puppy that's new to the homestead. I just wanted to share how the garden is looking at this oh-so-early time of year-

Lasagna-Style Baked Ziti

All right, before we get started talking about my favorite casserole ever... let's talk about other stuff. For one, I'm getting out of the house today. Finally! Ok, so it's only because I have a doctor's appointment for my back, but it's a start.

Creamy Chicken, Tortellini, and Spinach Soup

Uh, as far as soup goes, this is hands-down delicious. 

Creamy, savory broth?  Check.

Chewy tortellini filled with cheesy goodness?  Check. 

Crammed with the green goodness of spinach and protein-packed chicken?  Check.

25 Winter Soup Recipes

Hap, hap, happy Friday folks!

I know, I know, I told you I was either bringing you a pumpkin recipe or DIY gift idea today. Well, guess what? I lied! Both posts need more work, so I'm here with another round-up. I think I'm going to be doing round-up's once a month from now on, they have been going over really well. People seem to like them, and I'm going to keep giving the people what they want. And as we march further and further into winter, soup becomes a very popular menu item. I can't count how many times the hubby has come home from a very cold day, and been utterly delighted to find cozy soup and crusty french bread for dinner. Indeed, I think we have soup and bread at least once a week in the winter. I end up making tons of soups to freeze, and then I pretty much just pull a meal from the freezer once a week. I love it. 

Soup is one of those things that pretty much anyone can make. You don't need to be a gourmet chef. It doesn't take much technique. In fact, I've found almost every soup has a similar preparation process. For most soups, you heat a little bit of oil or butter to sauté your mirepoix. Mirepoix is French for "onions, carrots, and celery". Not every soup has that exact combination, but almost every soup starts out by sautéing some vegetables. It could be onions and peppers. Onions, carrots, celery, and shallot. Garlic. You name it. After sautéing the mirepoix, it seems everything else goes. Except if it's dairy based. I'm talking wine, broth, vegetables that aren't as hard as onions and carrots, beans, meat, spices. After you throw everything else in, you simmer for any given amount of time. Next would come the aforementioned dairy, if you are making a creamy soup. And last, but certainly not least, you would throw in any fresh parsley, basil, or cilantro you would be using. Again, if any. It's really pretty simple. Never fear the soup recipe, my friends. 

Another benefit of soup--It can be prepared early, or even a day in advance. Soup always seems to come together the day after it's made to make extraordinary flavors. 

One more thing before I go... Most of you know I link my weekly recipes at the end of the week to several different "linky" parties. All in the hopes of driving traffic. I have a near-constant goal of getting featured on said parties, and sometimes, I reach my goal. Today is one of those days! My General Tso's Chicken was the most viewed recipe of the week over on The Country Cook's Weekly Potluck! This is huge honor, as the last time this happened (for my Pecan Pie Cake) I ended up with a ton of new readers, followers on Pinterest, and FaceBook likes. For the smallest of small blogs, this is  super-exciting and keeps me in a tizzy all weekend. I'll have a smile on my face for the next couple of days for sure! :)

There you have it folks. I'll leave you with 25 scrumptious soup recipes to try. Have a great weekend!

1. Roasted Fennel, Chickpea, and Tomato Soup

2. Winter Minestrone

3. Vegetable Beef

4. Creamy Broccoli and Cheese Soup

5. Creamy Chicken, White Bean, and Green Chile Soup

6. Semi-Homemade Chicken and Dumplins'

7. Chickpea Minestrone

8. Caprese Soup

9. Chicken Soup with Egg Noodles

10. New England Clam Chowder

11. Chicken Soup with Shells and Kale

12. Chicken Taco Soup

13. Eggplant and Orzo Casserole Soup

14. Loaded Baked Potato Soup

15. Lentil Soup with Spicy Sausage and Kale

16. Oktoberfest Stew

17. Pasta Fagoli

18. Skinny Potato Soup

19. Roasted Cauliflower Soup

20. Smoky Black Bean Soup

21. Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili

22. Spanish Rice Soup

23. Turkey Pumpkin Chili

24. Tortilla Soup

25. White Bean and Spinach Soup

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party, Snickerdoodle Sunday, Treasure Box Tuesday

The Best Raspberry Vinaigrette

plus a salad recipe!

I love a good raspberry vinaigrette. Until recently however, I've been buying it at the store. Eek. Commercial salad dressings top a lot of foodie lists of the worst processed food items you can buy. Full of preservatives, artificial flavors and colors, and dun dun dun, waaaaay too much sugar. Preservatives I can see, but artificial flavors and colors? Look at that gorgeous raspberry color! Why would you need to artificially color that? And I'm pretty sure some commercial raspberry vinaigrettes don't even contain much of real raspberries. Well, I can tell you with ease, there are more than a few real raspberries in this dressing. 

This has to be one of the best raspberry vinaigrette recipes I've tried. And I've tried quite a few recipes. Recipes that had way too much vinegar and very little raspberry. Recipes that had way too much sugar and very little vinegar. Recipes that were bitter. Recipes that were way too sweet. Recipes that were too thin. It wasn't until I came up with this recipe that I was finally satisfied. This isn't your typical vinaigrette. It's thick, creamy, and for lack of a better word, luscious. The texture kind of reminds me of honey mustard. And it works.  It's a very versatile dressing, good for lettuce, spinach, veggies, fruit, meat, nuts, etc. 

One of my favorite salads to put raspberry vinaigrette on is a spinach salad. I've been making this salad (with commercial raspberry vinaigrette) for years. Years upon years. One of my friends brought a version of this salad to "Family Dinner" when the hubby and I were still living in our first apartment in Portland. "Family Dinner" was basically the hubby and I, plus a couple of his co-workers and their significant others getting together to share dinner and episodes of "Nip/Tuck". You know, in "Nip/Tuck"s heyday. We called it "Family Dinner" because one of the couple's family lived in Minnesota and the rest of us, well, our families lived not quite close. Each week, one couple would prepare dinner for the group. The next week, a different couple would prepare the meal. Ah, the early 20's. When friends were your family. Good times. I was introduced to quite a few "new-to-me" foods during that time. One being this salad. Spinach, red apples and red grapes, gorgonzola cheese, and raspberry vinaigrette. Yummy!

After being introduced to this salad, I began to reserve it for special occasions and I usually served it with steak. I remember 2 or 3 Valentine's Day menus that included a New York strip and this lovely salad. These days, I make it more often that once a year. And it goes perfectly with quite a few proteins- chicken breasts, fish fillets such as cod, halibut, tilapia, even salmon, pork tenderloin. You get the idea. This salad makes a great side dish. And don't limit your use of this dressing to this salad. The dressing goes quite well with lots of toppings, as I mentioned before. 

So, it's November 17 and here in NE Kentucky, we run the risk of getting some snow today. I'm not too worried, the temperature has been quite warm around here. It was 43º yesterday and it only got down to 35º last night. We are sitting firmly at 37º right now, so I'm thinking we might miss this first winter storm. I can only hope. I'm not ready for snow because once it starts, we'll probably be dealing with snow here until March. Maybe April, like last year. Ick. Can you tell I'm not a winter person? He he. 

All right, I'm out. The hubby says I need to be home by noon today, because that's when the snow is supposed to start. We went back and forth on this, me saying it should be too warm, him saying the snow could fall hard and fast and then it wouldn't matter if the temperature is too high. I'm not a snow driver though, so I fully plan on being home by noon. So-- off to run my errands :)

Happy Monday! Have a fantastic week everyone!

Ingredients (yields 2 cups):

3/4 cup frozen raspberries, thawed

1 cup canola oil (I used canola as to avoid the olive oil flavor)

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp white vinegar

1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp poppy seeds

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp onion powder

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in food processor. Pulse until smooth, about one minute. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. 

Printable Recipe

Recipe adapted from Food.com.

If you liked this recipe, you may enjoy these!

Apple Walnut Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing

Crispy Buffalo Chicken Salad

Linked to: Treasure Box Tuesday, Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party