R2R: Ricotta

I don't think that I will EVER EVER EVER buy grocery store ricotta again. If it weren't for Bon Appetit, who followed their homemade ricotta recipe with a feature on eggs, my winter cooking my have just continued to be a tribute to the roasted root vegetable. I like cheese. I really like cheese. I'm just waiting for a free Saturday afternoon so that I can take the fresh mozzarella class here in town.

This time, I used the R2R buttermilk ricotta recipe. Easy as pie, my cheese spent a day in the fridge before adorning my adaptation of carbonara (see, it's that cheese and egg combo again) with peas.

Thanks for the challenge!

R2R: Holopchi

I'm not sure exactly which army, football team, or church social the ladies of the Keld Community Ladies Club of Manitoba were cooking for.

I halved this recipe, and filled a casserole dish with a lovely little collection of bread dough wrapped in kale. By the time these babies were tucked in and surrounded by sauce, I was doubting exactly how much I could pass off on my family. I took the remainder of the bread dough, rolled it, shaped it into a loaf and baked it alongside my holopchi.

I'm surprised at how good these were. I trimmed the calories in the sauce by sauteeing a bit of flour with the onions and then adding skim milk. More sauce might have been better, but they were truly interesting, if not a traditional superbowl snack.

I'll keep these in mind next time I need to feed 5 dozen or so people.

R2R: The hors d'oeuvre (not appetizer) edition

I imagine that these recipes were chosen by folks with PARTIES TO ATTEND. When I was a kid, I presumed my parents to have had a very glamorous social life. There were cocktail parties, and black tie dinners, even the occasional costume party. I remember eating the Tortino's frozen pizza while my mom watched the news, did her make-up and put in her contact lenses. As an adult, my life is much more pedestrian. My kids and their semi-regular babysitters don't have the same Saturday evening connection with the Muppet Show, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island that Cathi and I did.

When I checked out these 3 recipes at the beginning of the month, I imagined that I would have places to go -- you know, fancy holiday soirees. In the end, we had a delightful month, but our partying was limited to a jeans and gym socks with Guitar Hero New Year's Eve. So my fancy-schmancy Blue Cheese-Pear Crostini sat gracefully in their silver platter, on the kitchen island, not far from the venison meatballs and bbq pork. But they were good. And soon they were gone. And in the midst of my revelry and reverie, I didn't even acquire much photographic evidence.

R2R: Squash Soup

There it is -- winter in a bowl. When the weather turns cold (or just cool, really), I will eat pretty much any oven roasted veggie around.

My squash soup stayed pretty close to the original recipe from Top Chef, although I halved the recipe and still had well more than four servings. When it came time to season the soup, I added a substantial about of Hot Curry Powder (from Penzey's spices) and some salt, to cut the sweetness a bit.

Since I was trying to pass this soup off as dinner, and a special one at that, for my kids, I drew upon a recipe that I intended to make earlier in the year for a dinner party that fell through. I found a recipe for Roasted Squash Soup with Saffron Vanilla Ice Cream in The New Spanish Table. So I broke out a pint of vanilla Haagen-Daaz and set a small scoop on the top of each serving. I liked the soup better without the vanilla flavor. My kids, they preferred the soup without the squash flavor.

This month's challenge was hosted by Meg of Joy Through Cooking. Check the Recipes to Rival Blogroll for other tasty versions of this soup.