What to do on a very rainy day?

It is a rainy day.  One of those days where it rains and rains and rains so the best way to spend it?  Thinking about food and cooking, of course.
Oh wait...I do that everyday!
I kind of like the occasional gloomy day where you really should just stay inside (if you can).  I think fall weather may be trying to actually take hold this week with highs in the 60's and lows in the 40's and I am ready for it!  Fall is when I am most productive with brisk days and even brisker nights.  You can really get some traction with all kinds of fall-ish food and the change in the seasonal produce.  I love all of the winter squash varieties.  I think they are so much more interesting in flavor and texture than their summer brethren.  I have a deli case full of butternut squash from my boyfriend's garden and they are big and beautiful and waiting to be made into one of my favorite soups and I really don't even like soup.  I know, I know, anathema but I just don't really like soup.  Well, let me clarify.  I like soup once.  I don't want to eat it over and over again until it's gone.  And, you know, that's kind of the point of soup...that you can eat it many times and it gets better each day (to a point).  And, I agree it does get better but I still don't want to eat it more than once.  There, I'm done with the whole soup situation.
So...my favorite soup and one that I created from scratch (yes, here comes another exercise in cooking without a recipe but I will give you the soup recipe) is Roasted Butternut Squash Soup.

This was a soup that was inspired by many restaurant-made squash soups and here's how I did it.
First, I knew that I wanted to use squash puree hence the need for roasting until soft.  Part of the reason is I don't like to cut up raw squash so if I can find an excuse to roast it for a recipe, I will!  But it also gives you an opportunity to instill additional flavor because it is seasoned for the roasting process.

From there, I thought of flavors that go well with the buttery, slightly sweet yet still savory squash.  This is where you can go crazy but try adding or changing ingredients/amounts one at a time so you have control over what is happening with the soup.

I love Asian/Thai flavors (I think you all know) so I leaned toward curry and ginger.  The trick is to saute the curry and ginger together before adding squash puree.  That step really brings out the essential oils and aromatics. To add to the sweetness, I included an apple along with onion and carrot.

Then to make it creamier, just a little heavy cream after I used the immersion blender to really smooth out the texture and make it velvety.  Butternut squash is really good at being velvety.

As an aside, you could also take this recipe in a more Mediterranean direction with rosemary, thyme and carameliized onions...hey, maybe that's where we'll go next with this soup!
In the meantime, here is the really great recipe for my "favorite" soup.  And, just try to tell me that it ISN'T restaurant quality.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Serves 12

¼ cup unsalted butter

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

1 sweet/tart apple (like Fuji), peeled, cored, finely chopped

¼ cup (scant) grated fresh ginger

4 – 5 tbsp good curry powder

3 medium butternut squash, roasted, flesh removed

2 quarts chicken broth or stock, unsalted

1 cup heavy cream

Kosher salt

Black pepper

Melt butter in large heavy stockpot or saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion, carrots, and apple, season with salt and cook until soft but not caramelized. 

Add ginger and curry powder and cook until the spices are fragrant.

Meanwhile, place roasted squash in the workbowl of a food processor and puree (it will be thick).  Add enough chicken broth or stock to thin it to a heavy cake batter consistency.  Add sautéed vegetables and spices to the processor and continue to puree until the mixture is quite smooth.

Return puree to the pot and process with an immersion blender.  Begin adding chicken broth or stock until the consistency is similar to heavy cream.  Allow soup to simmer briefly then add cream and warm slowly over medium low heat.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve with large homemade croutons.  It is also nice to add crumbled bacon over the top with a drizzle of sour cream.

And as always...
If you like this post, SHARE it on Facebook, Twitter or with someone you think needs to see it! 
Come join the fun and take a class with us!  
Visit my website at Urban Kitchen on Cherry Street and check out the Class Calendar.

And, if personalizing your cooking and making it fun sounds interesting to you, you might enjoy my Complete Resource Guide to Stress-Free Entertaining.   Check it out by clicking on the link....it's free!

Tomatoes today, tomorrow and the next day...

Roasting tomatoes is a great way to use all those fresh tomatoes that may be starting to go bad on you.  Smells great when they're roasting and it is super easy.  Use them on pizza, bruschetta, in pasta, just use your imagination.  Keep this in mind when you've got all of those beautiful, local, vine-ripened tomatoes later this summer...

Preheat oven to 425.  Place whole tomatoes and unpeeled and smashed garlic cloves on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roast about 25 minutes until the skins pop.  Baste with the remaining oil and you're ready to go!
They will keep in the fridge for a week or so.  Put them in storage containers with enough olive oil just to cover.

~This was a post from June, 2010.  It seemed appropriate for almost late summer with an update here and there.  I also love that picture!~

And as always...
 If you liked this post, SHARE it on Facebook, Twitter or with someone you think needs to see it!

Come join the fun and take a class with us!  Visit my website at Urban Kitchen on Cherry Street and check out the Class Calendar.

And, if you haven't already...don't forget to read my July 4th post and answer The Girl's Super Simple Survey!

It's not about the nail (applied to the kitchen)

Have you seen the viral video, "It's not about the nail."?

If you haven't, you really should.  I won't spoil it for you but it is the ubiquitous couple's "conversation" where he is trying to be practical and she just wants him to listen to her and stop trying to fix everything.  I was watching this video again last night for, oh, I don't know, the fifteenth time and it hit me (again)...it's not about the food, cooking or recipe, it's about listening to yourself.

You know how I hate it when people are slaves to recipes.  It happens in my classes all the time.  It is the bane of my existence and I feel it is my mission in life to lead you down "freedom's path" to the place without recipes.
The inevitable (and constant) question is: "How much of that did you put in?"  And, my inevitable response is:  "Um, I don't know, maybe a (fill in the blank with a form of measurement)."  It's not that I mean to be oppositional; it's just that as I stand in my mother's shoes, I really don't know for sure, exactly how much I put in.  So, I often have some frustrated people in my classes, especially the accountants and engineers.  At least in the beginning.  Then, they learn to relax, have another glass of wine and just go with it or I guess, they find another kind of cooking class.
Because it's not about the measuring!  It's about tasting the food and thinking or feeling something about it.  Does it taste salty, sweet, bitter, tart, bland or whatever.  If you don't think about or feel something about those taste experiences, I'm afraid you will be trapped in Recipeland, forever.  EEK!!

Here's the thing, recipes are created by people who like things a certain way.  That's why sometimes when you follow a recipe exactly, you think it tastes like crap because it doesn't suit your taste.  The person who made up that recipe does not have your taste buds or flavor memories so how in the world can he/she tell you about making something?  It may taste perfectly fine to them but not to you.  And, you know what, that's okay!  You are entitled to your opinion, so disagree!
Day in and day out, you follow the recipes of other people because you think they know more than you do.  Well, maybe they do but only you know what you like and how you like it.  Would you let someone pick out your clothes and tell you what to wear?  Of course not!  Unless you're five.  So why do you allow other people to dictate how you are going to have your food?  It's one thing to go to a restaurant or someone's home to enjoy their food.  It's something else to be making your own food by following someone else's rules, don't you think?
So here's another little recipe exercise to help you find your way out of Recipeland and back to freedom!  This is one I made up from different foods and flavors that I really like.  We'll start simple with a salad  because I'm only going to give you the ingredient list and no measurements! But I will give you a picture.

• red onion
• cucumber
• grape tomatoes
• feta cheese
• romaine lettuce
• white balsamic vinegar
• extra virgin olive oil
• kosher salt and ground black pepper

Here's what you do.  Gather YOUR ingredients.  Add, subtract, and/or modify to your heart's content.  You don't like red onion?  Fine, leave it out.  You love red bell pepper?  Great, add some.  See what I mean?  This stops being my Chopped Greek Salad and becomes your salad, isn't that cool!  So take ownership and do what you like to it.  Make it taste the way you like things to taste.  Then let me know how it turned out!  Because it's not about the nail!
And as always...
 If you liked this post, SHARE it on Facebook, Twitter or with someone you think needs to see it!

Come join the fun and take a class with us!  Visit my website at Urban Kitchen on Cherry Street and check out the Class Calendar.

And, if you haven't already...don't forget to read my July 4th post and answer The Girl's Super Simple Survey!

To Cook or Not To Cook...or maybe the question is...

Here I go again...starting off with a weird title.
So I guess I need to explain...but first...thanks so much to everyone for their responses to my Super Simple Survey.  It gave me lots of food for thought, so to speak.

And, here's one of those thoughts - maybe it's not about the cooking or even the food, maybe what it's really about is how you go about the cooking and thinking about the food and the process.

Consider this...you get home from work and you are dead tired.  The last thing you want to think about is making something to eat.  Cooking sounds like a death sentence and certainly the last thing you would do for fun.  Dragging yourself into the kitchen to stare into the refrigerator or the pantry with those sunken eyes that just seem to spin in your head as you come up with, well, nothing.  Finally, you grab a cracker and a glass of water and go to bed.  If you have kids, you give them a cracker, too.  Well...I think I may have to go jump out the window myself...This kind of mindset leads to books like this!  YIKES!!!

How about an alternative scenario....you get home from work and yes, you are dead tired once more.  This time, you turn on some music, pour a glass of wine and head to the bedroom.  Now wait a minute...we are going back to the kitchen!  Change out of your work clothes into something more conducive to a relaxed and comfortable experience.  I know...yoga pants and flip flops!  Now, you return to the kitchen.  Slightly refreshed and certainly in a better frame of mind.  Instead of staring into the refrigerator for inspiration...because believe me, it does not exist inside that box, you consider what would make you feel good about this whole situation.  Sometimes it might be ordering pizza or Chinese takeout but let's stay with this vision of actually cooking something.  You remember some things that you have learned recently like...start with a meat or fish or even vegetable that you really like to eat, then you think about how to fix it so it tastes even better.  Maybe you do a quick saute in a little olive oil with garlic and onion and then make an even quicker pan sauce with one of your favorite herbs,a little wine (that you're drinking, of course) and finish it with a little butter or cream or cheese.  Then you stop to consider how great the music sounds, the wine tastes and how much better you're feeling.  Wow!  I already feel much better than that jumping out of the window thing.  Woohoo...we're having some fun, now!

No, I do not know who this person is but she sure is happy!

See...it's really not about cooking or food...it's about the attitude.  You can cook anything and make it a pain or you can make it a pleasure.  Let me give you another example...
When you watch cooking shows or just watch people cook...it's boring, right?  The actual cooking is super boring.  In my classes, when we have to wait for things to finish cooking....Lordy!  Takes for evah!  That's because nothing is happening except cooking.  So the reason we watch cooking shows or take cooking classes is to be entertained (not just to learn something although I like to think that you learn a little bit in my classes).  If you watch the online cooking courses, pick one, it doesn't matter which one, they're boring!  I want to poke my eyes out!  It isn't about the cooking or the food...it's about the person doing it.  Again, a fer instance...I would watch Michael Symon make mud...he could just mix dirt and water all day as far as I'm concerned because he's so cool and attitude...for days!  Not to mention, he's cute AND bald which is a huge bonus for me.  Now, when I watch him cook real food, do I learn anything?  Sometimes.  But he mostly cooks stuff I already know about so why do I watch?  Because of the "feel" of his show or the "feel" of how he cooks.  And, yes, he is cute and would probably be very fun to party with but I also watch Alex Guarnaschelli because of the " C" factor...not because she's cute.  Although, I think she would be fun to party with, too.

See what I mean?
Now, here's the rub.  In order to create the coolness factor, you've got to do A LOT of WORK and spend A LOT of TIME not to mention MONEY on cookbooks and cooking references and utensils and heavy equipment and food magazines and watching food shows with lots of trial and error involved.  Notice I didn't say anything about going to culinary school?  No, because you don't need to go to school to create this.  But you do need all this other stuff because you need to have your own library (for lack of a better word) to pull from.
What if someone did all that work FOR you?  What if all that information was in one spot for you to refer to without you doing much of anything?
I know...sounds crazy doesn't it?  And, since I am just a little crazy, I'm going to have an answer to those "what ifs" in the very near future. So keep the faith, baby.  Help is on its way...
And as always...
 If you liked this post, SHARE it on Facebook, Twitter or with someone you think needs to see it!

Come join the fun and take a class with us!  Visit my website at Urban Kitchen on Cherry Street and check out the Class Calendar.

And, if you haven't already...don't forget to read my July 4th post and answer The Girl's Super Simple Survey!

Is it eggplant or is it aubergine?

No matter your preference...I apparently can grow it.  It's a good thing because not much of anything else is knocking my socks off!
But!  I am going to have a lot of eggplant.  I guess the bunnies don't care for it and maybe the birds can't find them because they are up under those giant leaves.  I bet you'd like to see a picture of these guys, wouldn't you? 
They really are pretty and I am impressed with them and the quantity.  The flowerbuds are even nice...a kind of white and lavender.  Imagine that, a purple veggie with a lavender flower!  OK, here goes.  This is one side of the plant but let's get a different view...

Here's the other side...

She Can Cook, Too!

I have been trying to decide what to write about today and then it happened...my NYC daughter emailed me with a photograph of her first attempt at the Black Bean Pineapple Salad over which I have been waxing poetic...LOL.

Take a look at this! Even her little sister knew what it was!

This is the child who was asking me to add "How to Boil Water" to my blog.

You've made your mama (and your sister) proud, girl...of course, let me know how it tastes!

It just goes to show you that if you will jump into the whole cooking thing, you can do it.

BTW....here's a shameless plug...my next cooking class is scheduled for Thursday, June 11 at 6:30. We'll be at Metro Builders Supply at 53rd and Mingo. Their showroom is beautiful and filled with every appliance you could ever want to see. They have re-designed a number of areas (including the Viking Gallery where I typically teach and cook). The topic will be Entree Salads and Salad Dressings and since the May class was canceled (too many people with too much to do!), I will focus on Knife Skills as well. So it should be lots of fun. Here's what I'm thinking for recipes...Grilled Flank Steak Salad with Blue Cheese over Baby Arugula and Latin-inspired Grilled Chicken Salad with Grilled Avocado and Onions over Chopped Romaine Hearts. My dressings will be made using one of my favorite tools...the Mason jar!

Enjoy the beautiful weather (if you're in this part of the country) and your Sunday wherever you are!

Happy Cooking!!

Welcome to my blog!

I'm Candace, the girl behind (or in front of?) The Girl Can Cook!
First, a little about me...and, actually, I'm not much of a girl anymore but you're only as old as you feel, right? I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma smack dab in the middle of the country (Yes, we have computers out here in the Wild West even though, it's not very wild and not even very far west!). I am a divorced single mom and have two terrific daughters; one lives with me, the other is following her dreams in NYC.
Like many of us, I began cooking as a means of survival but I always enjoyed exploring food magazines and cookbooks long before it was a celebrity thing. I watched Julia Child on PBS and marvelled at all of the things she could do with a chicken and then, of course, loved Dan Ackroyd's impression of her on SNL. I even watched Graham Kerr, The Galloping Gourmet, before he found religion and stopped getting drunk on his shows.
I come from a long line of talented home cooks (my mother being the best!) and food was always just a part of my life. In my family, you show people how much they are loved by the food you prepare for them.
But I digress...let's just say that I have good cooking "genes". I am primarily self taught but have taken lots of classes (Culinary Institute type) and worked with many other chefs. Last fall, I won a recipe contest that I entered as a lark, sponsored by Cooking Light magazine (the recipe will be posted shortly) and I have created a "Guy Friendly Dinner Party Menu" that will be featured in one of the fall/winter issues of Men's Fitness. I teach cooking classes here in Tulsa at Metro Builders Supply in its Viking Gallery (although they have every series of appliances you can imagine so I'm going to be working my way around the store). And, I love to teach! It's one of my favorite things to do!! My classes are called "Cooking without a Parachute" where I allow people to experiment with different foods, flavors, and ingredients so that they can cook fearlessly.
I look forward to sharing Daily Tips, recipes, "secrets", and my life with you. Oh yeah, I love answering questions and researching food topics so let's make this a forum for discussion and maybe we'll all learn something.
Join me on my journey through food!