Roasted & Stuffed Acorn Squash

Columbus Day = no work!!  With this great gift of a three day weekend after coming off a month of travel,  I am putting it to great use…cooking, exercising, cleaning, prepping for fall, and yes, catching up on all the fall shows I keep missing during the week (gotta love Scandal and Quantico!).  After a 6 mile walk through Chicago and along the waterfront this morning, I decided to keep up the clean and healthy eating by making this acorn squash recipe I stumbled upon.  I loved that it was a full meal, vs just eating the squash as a side dish.  It is very filling and scrumptious!

Poached Eggs with White Cheddar and Tomatoes

Continuing on my weekend of home cooking, I decided to test out my new egg poachers.  Poaching eggs is something I have never been able to do on my own.  Last weekend, my girlfriends and I did a weekend trip up to the Kohler Spa in Wisconsin (so fab!).  On the way back to Chicago, we stopped for a quick power shop at the outlets and I picked up a pair of Poachpods hoping they would help me master this tasty style of egg (I love runny yolk!).  It was super easy and they turned out amazing!  This recipe was thrown together with what I had in my fridge and it was super tasty.  Enjoy!

Whipped Feta

This weekend was a pretty darn good one!  One of my closest friends was in Chicago this weekend, I played host at home for the first time at home, and I made some great appetizers, one of which I am sharing today.  I am not sure about you, but I LOVE all kinds of cheese, anything from cheese wiz all the way to the fancy cheeses.  As I was trying to find some appetizer inspiration, I stumbled across a blog with an entry titled “whipped feta” – I was hooked.  This is one of the easiest things you can do and packs a lot of flavor.  I spread the whipped feta on some toasted garlic bread, roasted some Campari tomatoes with olive oil, 3 garlic cloves and topped it off with a little fresh basil…yummy!  

Ricotta & Orzo Stuffed Tomatoes

Well, life has been a little busy lately and I have grown very delinquent on posting.  I guess when most of your pots and pans are packed for a month it makes it a bit hard to cook.  This is officially my first post in my new place.  Most of my weekends since moving in have involved some sort of home improvement project and multiple trips to Home Depot – I believe my house is putting me through a little new home buyer hazing (I hope it ends soon). 

Tomato Soup

It’s my first day back in Chicago after a great Christmas in Atlanta and I thought I would give a few of my new gifts a whirl – thanks for the pot utensil clip Mom and pot holders Michael and Libby! Even though we were one Klindt (well, now Schumacher) short this year, we had a lot of fun, eating, drinking, watching movies, and SLEEPING.  I am not sure about you, but when I have a chunk of time off, my body will shut down and go into hibernation mode for a while. 

Tomato, Chard and Gruyère Casserole

I plucked this recipe out of Food & Wine magazine a while ago so excited to make it and I am not sure why I have waited so long because it is REALLY good!  It is a rustic dish that is perfect for Fall and Winter (and definitely paired well with the rainy/gloomy day we are having here in Chicago with Smash on in the background).  It is a very hearty dish but could be used for either a main dish or a side.  The one criticism I have is that the prep time does take a while (lots of chopping!) but it is worth it and I am sure there are ways to cut it back (like cooking the swiss chard the day before and slicing the tomatoes). A perfect option for a vegetarian plate at a dinner party.  I would definitely recommend cutting it in half or 2/3rds because it makes A LOT of food and most people don’t have a dish that can handle this size casserole.