Wild Mushroom and Gruyere Tart

There is something to be said for comfort foods: the kind of warm, sumptuous meal that feels just right on chilly fall evenings. Like anything else (especially where food is considered), it is a personal preference. For some, it is a food that takes them back to when they were kids; to others, it might be food that reminds them of a place they once lived. But to me, this creamy, earthy mushroom tart is quintessential comfort food.

The first time that I made this tart, I was frantically surfing the web looking for just the right recipe to showcase the wonderful grab bag of wild mushrooms that I'd picked up at our local farmer's market. Hazel Dell Mushrooms is the it mushroom maker of Boulder County, if there can be one. All the chic farm-to-table restaurants nearby proudly list Hazel Dell on their menus, and for good reason. Hazel Dell sells beautiful organic mushrooms, and when you pick up one of their pre-mixed bags, you get to sample everything that is available. Shiitake, lion's mane, cinnamon cap... you name it.

 Eventually I stumbled upon a recipe from Whole Foods which was my jumping point. I already knew that I would use our own easy as pie tart dough, and I had gruyere in the fridge, so that was no question. And doesn't gruyere just beg to be paired with wild mushrooms? The answer is yes, and I've made this recipe several times since that first evening. I know I'll be making it plenty more times too.

Wild Mushroom and Gruyere Tart

Serves 4-6

• 1/2 recipe of tart dough (you can only make half, or you can save the other half for another tart or pie)
• 1 cup gruyere
• 2 tbs butter
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 to 3/4 lb mixed wild mushrooms, roughly chopped (such as oysters, chanterelles, hedgehogs, lion's mane. Or do half buttons)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup chicken or veggie broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Pre-bake your crust: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the dough to 1/8" or so, and then transfer to tart pan. Line the dough with foil, and then fill with a layer of pie weights (or dried beans that you use for this purpose.) Bake for 15 minutes, and then remove the foil and weights. Return to the oven and cook for 5 minutes more.

2. Heat butter and oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper, and cook until soft, 8 or so minutes.

3. Add broth, and cook, stirring, until broth evaporates. Add cream, and again cook while stirring, until it has mostly evaporated. Remove from heat.

4. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of gruyere onto the pre-baked tart shell. Pour in the mushroom mixture and spread around in an even layer. Add the rest of the cheese on top.

5. Bake the tart for about 20 minutes. The mushroom mixture will be bubbly, and the crust will be a golden brown. Let it rest for a few minutes, and then cut into slices to serve.

Simple Butternut Squash Soup

This recipe is one that is in regular rotation in my kitchen. If I get a butternut squash in my CSA, I always have the other ingredients on hand to make this easy and satisfying soup. As a bonus, my toddler just loves it. You can try just about any winter squash in this soup, and I've had great success with acorn squash and kabocha squash.

Based on a recipe from my old favorite Joy of Cooking, this has been even further simplified from what was already a pretty easy rendition of butternut squash soup. The result is a soup that is smooth and creamy (but dairy-free), and it even has the potential of being vegan if you use oil and veggie stock. There is very little hands on time, and the bulk of cooking is just roasting the squash. Once that is out of the way, the soup comes together in very little time.

If you are feeling fancy, you can roast the butternut squash seeds (which are taste just like pumpkin seeds but are teeny and darling) and use them as a garnish. But let's be honest, this is just the perfect recipe when you aren't feeling fancy at all. And that is okay.

Simple Butternut Squash Soup

• 1 medium to large butternut squash, halved and seeded

• 3 tbs butter or vegetable oil

• 1 large onion, chopped roughly

• 1/2 tsp ground ginger 

• 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

• 1 tsp salt

• parsley or cilantro, chopped (for garnish)

1. Preheat your oven to 400. Place squash with the cut side down on an oiled baking sheet. Roast for about an hour until it can be pierced easily with a fork. Once cool, remove and discard the skin, leaving only the pulp.

2. Heat butter or oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and the ginger, and cook, stirring, until tender (about 5 minutes).

3. Stir in the roasted squash and the stock. Simmer and cook, breaking up the squash a bit, for around 20 minutes.

4. Puree the soup until smooth. I use my immersion blender (which I adore!) because that involves the least amount of clean up. You could also use a blender or food processor. Add salt to taste, and reheat. Add your garnish, and serve!

Cider & Bourbon

Sometimes the best recipes are the simplest ones. This fall, we're drinking a cocktail that falls into this category. Delicious apple cider, small-batch bourbon, and a hint of those quintessential fall spices that we start longing for this time of year.

Of course, while stirring bourbon and cider together on their own would be a perfectly tasty beverage, add some fall spices to the mix and you have something truly special. We grabbed some cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and a few cardamom seeds, and then added them to our shaker along with the bourbon and cider. A minute or two of shaking, and you've got yourself a beautifully spiced cocktail -- not overly cloying like the off-the-shelf spiced ciders can be.

We have enjoyed our cider & bourbons a couple of ways: in a jam jar (rustic-style) and in a martini glass (ever-so sophisticated). This drink is ready for whatever occasion you have in mind. If it is sweater-weather, then the cider & bourbon is entirely appropriate.

Cider & Bourbon

• 3 oz apple cider

• 2 oz bourbon

• 1/2 cinnamon stick

• 5 whole cloves

• 5 cardamom seeds

• Apple cross section, for garnish

Vigorously shake cider, bourbon, and spices in a shaker with ice for a minute or two. Pour into glass, and garnish with apple slice. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Pumpkin muffins loaded with warm autumn spices and a delicious cream cheese center.  The epitome of fall! The type of recipe you make yourself and realize tastes much better than the coffee shop version! Behold:

This is another of those classic autumn recipes that we have seen making the rounds on Pinterest, so we pounced on the very first cool weather day to make these beauties.  We found lots of very similar versions of this recipe online (Annie’s Eats and See Brooke Cook to name two).  Let me tell you about how we’ve simplified them, just for discussion’s sake.

First of all, most recipes call for you to form the sweetened cream cheese into a log, wrap it in plastic, freeze it, then slice off medallions to plop into the center of the muffins.  The honest reason we didn’t do this is because we were too far along when we actually read this part of the recipe.  Oops, totally my fault.  I am the non-meticulous one.  We were so sad, thinking that our muffins would be a mess when they came out of the oven.  But they weren’t – the filling didn’t melt away and it all turned out quite beautifully. Whew!



Next, most recipes called for the inclusion of both “pumpkin pie spice” as well as most of the individual components of pumpkin pie spice. We found this confusing and also we don’t keep pumpkin pie spice on hand, so we broke the spice mixture down into its basic parts (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and clove).  This is nice and flexible – feel free to ad lib here; it will be OK if you leave a few out as long as you keep the cinnamon.

The other thing we did was reduce the sugar and oil in this recipe.  Now – you know us, and it wasn’t for health reasons but instead for taste reasons.  Many comments on the original recipes said the muffins were overly oily, so we reduced it a smidge. Then we started thinking that 1/2 cup sugar combined with 4 oz cream cheese would result in an uber-sweet filling, so we chopped the sugar amount in half. Last but not least, 1 cup of sugar in a recipe for 12 muffins seemed like a lot, so we reduced that to 3/4 cup and were very happy with the results.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield 12 muffins
Cream Cheese Filling

• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar

Whip together cream cheese and sugar very well.  We’ve done this with a fork, a hand mixer, and a food processor – anything works.  When it is all combined, pop it back in the fridge to stay cold while you prep the rest of the muffins.  Having this mixture as cool as possible will prevent the cream from melting away too much during baking.  The results in the picture were created with the cream mixture left at room temperature, though, so don’t worry too much about this cooling step!
Muffins

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Our own version of “Pumpkin Pie Spices”; feel free to ad lib a little based on what you have on hand.  Nothing is essential other than the cinnamon.

• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves

Mix the sugar, oil, pumpkin, and eggs together very well in a large mixing bowl.  Then plop the flour, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spices on top of this blended wet mixture.  Stir well to incorporate and fully mix everything together. 
Line muffin tins with paper cups, or lightly oil them. Spoon about 1-2 Tablespoons of batter into the bottom of each muffin.  We used a regular dinner spoon – heaping – to do this.  Make sure this batter is spread thinly and evenly across the bottom of each muffin tin.  I whacked mine flat on the counter a few times to accomplish this.
Next, distribute a spoonful (approx 1 Tablespoon) of the cream cheese filling in each.
Finally, evenly distribute the remainder of the batter over the top of the cream cheese.  Approx 2-3 Tablespoons each is what we came out with.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  Let cool before you eat them, unless you are ready to deal with molten cream cheese!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Pumpkin muffins loaded with warm autumn spices and a delicious cream cheese center.  The epitome of fall! The type of recipe you make yourself and realize tastes much better than the coffee shop version! Behold:

This is another of those classic autumn recipes that we have seen making the rounds on Pinterest, so we pounced on the very first cool weather day to make these beauties.  We found lots of very similar versions of this recipe online (Annie’s Eats and See Brooke Cook to name two).  Let me tell you about how we’ve simplified them, just for discussion’s sake.

First of all, most recipes call for you to form the sweetened cream cheese into a log, wrap it in plastic, freeze it, then slice off medallions to plop into the center of the muffins.  The honest reason we didn’t do this is because we were too far along when we actually read this part of the recipe.  Oops, totally my fault.  I am the non-meticulous one.  We were so sad, thinking that our muffins would be a mess when they came out of the oven.  But they weren’t – the filling didn’t melt away and it all turned out quite beautifully. Whew!

Next, most recipes called for the inclusion of both “pumpkin pie spice” as well as most of the individual components of pumpkin pie spice. We found this confusing and also we don’t keep pumpkin pie spice on hand, so we broke the spice mixture down into its basic parts (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and clove).  This is nice and flexible – feel free to ad lib here; it will be OK if you leave a few out as long as you keep the cinnamon.

The other thing we did was reduce the sugar and oil in this recipe.  Now – you know us, and it wasn’t for health reasons but instead for taste reasons.  Many comments on the original recipes said the muffins were overly oily, so we reduced it a smidge. Then we started thinking that 1/2 cup sugar combined with 4 oz cream cheese would result in an uber-sweet filling, so we chopped the sugar amount in half. Last but not least, 1 cup of sugar in a recipe for 12 muffins seemed like a lot, so we reduced that to 3/4 cup and were very happy with the results.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield 12 muffins

Cream Cheese Filling

• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar

Whip together cream cheese and sugar very well.  We’ve done this with a fork, a hand mixer, and a food processor – anything works.  When it is all combined, pop it back in the fridge to stay cold while you prep the rest of the muffins.  Having this mixture as cool as possible will prevent the cream from melting away too much during baking.  The results in the picture were created with the cream mixture left at room temperature, though, so don’t worry too much about this cooling step!

Muffins

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Our own version of “Pumpkin Pie Spices”; feel free to ad lib a little based on what you have on hand.  Nothing is essential other than the cinnamon.

• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves

Mix the sugar, oil, pumpkin, and eggs together very well in a large mixing bowl.  Then plop the flour, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spices on top of this blended wet mixture.  Stir well to incorporate and fully mix everything together. 

Line muffin tins with paper cups, or lightly oil them. Spoon about 1-2 Tablespoons of batter into the bottom of each muffin.  We used a regular dinner spoon – heaping – to do this.  Make sure this batter is spread thinly and evenly across the bottom of each muffin tin.  I whacked mine flat on the counter a few times to accomplish this.

Next, distribute a spoonful (approx 1 Tablespoon) of the cream cheese filling in each.

Finally, evenly distribute the remainder of the batter over the top of the cream cheese.  Approx 2-3 Tablespoons each is what we came out with.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  Let cool before you eat them, unless you are ready to deal with molten cream cheese!

Spiced Nuts

Now that it’s October, we felt the need to roast some nuts to a sweet and autumn-spiced crunch.

These are the result, and the main thing I have to say about them is that I had no idea it was so easy to replicate the super crunchy crispy nuts that you can find at street fairs during the holiday season. 
The egg whites create a very nice and extremely crispy shell, the sugar does what sugar should do, and the spices make these taste like fall.  And Dulcie and I agree that fall is the #1 best season.  Don’t you?

Spiced Nuts

• 2 eggs whites
  
• 4 cups whole raw nuts (I used almonds, walnuts, and pecans)
  
• 1 cup white sugar (vanilla sugar if you have it!)
  
• 2 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Add the two eggs whites to a large bowl and whisk until broken up and just starting to become foamy.
Add the 4 cups of nuts and stir well to completely coat the nuts in the egg white.  Add sugar and spices, stir well to coat.  Spread the nuts into a single thin layer on 2 baking sheets covered in parchment.
Bake at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until nuts are no longer sticky and flexible.  Let cool completely, then break apart and enjoy.

Thank you to 101cookbooks for the technique inspiration!