Katie:  I’ve thought about making calzones, but have been intimidated by the amount of prep work required just to prepare the pizza dough.  So when I spotted this recipe for Chicken Parmesan Wraps from Can You Stay for Dinner?, I was excited at the possibility of a quicker version of calzones.  Rather than using homemade or even store-bought pizza dough, Andie used egg roll wrappers.  Great idea!

I prepared the pockets as written, except I cooked the chicken breasts in a panini grill.  I made a few adjustments to the marinara sauce, including adding balsamic vinegar, which really enhanced the flavor.  The sauce took a little while to simmer, but otherwise these were pretty simple to prepare.  The pockets were crispy and tasted great with the flavorful marinara sauce.  These would probably be great with other fillings too, like mushrooms or ricotta cheese.  Now I just need to decide what to make with the leftover egg roll wrappers!

Chicken Parmesan Pockets (slightly adapted from Can You Stay for Dinner?)

makes 6

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 6 oz can tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 8 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 6 egg roll wrappers (each 7 inches squared)
• 1 cup baby spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Sauce:

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add one tablespoon olive oil.  Add the onion and garlic and saute, stirred frequently, for about 5 minutes, until lightly browned.  Lower the heat if necessary to prevent the onion and garlic from burning.

Add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste and stir until the mixture is smooth. Add the remaining sauce ingredients (Italian herbs through balsamic vinegar), stir, and bring the mixture to a simmer.  Lower the heat to the lowest setting, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally so that the bottom does not burn.

Chicken Parmesan Pockets:

Cook the chicken in a panini press or pan until lightly brown and thoroughly cooked.  Let cool, and then shred with two forks (or your fingers), pulling against the grain of the meat.  Mix the shredded chicken with one cup of the marinara sauce in a small bowl.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Cover a cooking sheet with parchment paper.  Lay the egg roll wrappers on a clean work surface.  Layer each with a few leaves of spinach, then the chicken mixture, and top with the cheeses.

Lightly brush two adjacent sides of the wrapper with water and fold the upper left corner downward, covering the filling and forming a triangle, and press to seal on the bottom right corner. Press to seal each of the sides. Repeat with remaining wraps.

Place all 6 filled wraps on the baking sheet without touching each other, brush lightly with the remaining tablespoon olive oil, and bake for about 12 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn golden brown. Serve with warmed marinara sauce for dipping.

Matthew:  After the great beef stew, it was time to try something a little different.  Erika recommended this recipe for Inner Warmth Peanut Stew, from Matt Moyer, executive chef at The Great Dane.  The list of ingredients might seem a little strange–butternut squash, tomatoes, peanut butter, garlic, and ginger–but the combination really tastes good.  I was a little hesitant to add 1/2 cup of ginger, but I went for it.  I really enjoyed this stew.  It made quite a bit and I ended up freezing half of it, but after I finished the first half I thawed the other half to eat right away.  I highly recommend this recipe if you are tired of the more traditional winter soups and stews, but still want something warm and filling.  Two small changes I made were to use chunky peanut butter and to add some cinnamon.

Matthew:  Even though the weather has been unusually warm, I’ve been busy making lots of winter foods, especially stews.  I love making stews because everything goes in one pot and once you get them simmering, you are practically done.  I found this recipe for Irish beef stew and the result was very good.  It uses Guinness and red wine, making it extra flavorful.  I found some nice grass-fed organic beef and beef stock concentrate at the co-op to use in the stew.  The end result was delicious and I could have eaten it every day for weeks.  I’ll have to make some more soon!

Matthew:  I was charged with bringing a delicious dessert to an after-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner.  I chose to bring a tart with a thin layer of Nutella under a ganache.  I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate in the ganache and it turned out really rich and decadent.  The Nutella layer was nice too, giving the tart a hint of hazelnuts.  Here’s the recipe:

Tart Shell (I sort of made 1.5x the recipe since I had an 11″ pan and this recipe is for a 9″ pan)

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. confectioners’ sugar

1/4 t. salt

9 T. cold butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg yolk

Whisk together dry ingredients, then cut cold butter into the mixture.  This can be done in a food processor or by hand.  Then, mix in the egg yolk until it comes together.  (Mine didn’t, so I added a fair amount of water.)  Press into a tart pan.  Cover tart with foil and either beans or some other weight and bake at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes.  Take off foil and weights and bake for ~8 minutes or until brown.

When tart is cool, spread a thin layer of Nutella and then pour on ganache (see below).  Chill in fridge to set.

Ganache

Boil 1 c. plus 2 T. heavy cream in a saucepan.  Pour over 8 oz. finely chopped bittersweet chocolate in a heat-proof bowl.  Let sit 30 seconds, then stir slowly until chocolate melts.

Matthew:  To use up my last two CSA butternut squashes, I decided to make this stew from Smitten Kitchen.  Since I had so much squash, I left out the potatoes.  It was really good with the spices and olives.  I served it with cilantro and plain yogurt and instead of using regular couscous, I used israeli couscous.  It was definitely a good, healthy winter dish.

Katie:  You can never have too much pumpkin!

I was pleasantly surprised with an extremely simple black bean soup recipe recently, so when I saw this pumpkin version on Closet Cooking, I knew I had to try it!  It was a perfect blend of onion, garlic, black beans, diced tomatoes, pumpkin puree, a bit of sherry, and cumin and chili powder.  The addition of pumpkin made it slightly sweet and very rich.  It was great topped with sour cream and cilantro!

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup (slightly adapted from Closet Cooking)

yield:  4 servings

1. Heat oil in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Add  the garlic, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
4. Transfer to a cooking pot and add the broth, pumpkin, black beans, tomatoes and sherry.  Simmer for 25-30 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and puree carefully until you reach the desired consistency.  Add extra liquid (water) if it gets too thick.
6. Serve with cilantro and sour cream.  Enjoy!

Katie:  I love everything pumpkin, especially pumpkin pie!  My favorite part is, of course, the pumpkin filling.  Making a pie crust can be a lot of work, so this “Impossible Pumpkin Pie” is the perfect solution!  Why impossible?  Because you just blend up all of the ingredients, pour the mixture into a pie pan, and stick it in the oven.  An hour later, a solidified, crustless, delicious pie is formed!

I’ve used this recipe before.  It’s from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, but my pie isn’t vegan or fat-free since I used real eggs.

Impossible Pumpkin Pie (adapted slightly from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen)

Matthew:  On a whim about a month ago, I bought an unfamiliar squash at a local farm.  After some research, I was able to identify it as a red kuri squash.  I wasn’t exactly sure what to use it for, but fortuitously I came upon a recipe for Beatrix’s Red Kuri Soup in the cookbook Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan.  The cookbook has tons of amazing French recipes, several of which I am excited to try out.  The soup recipe was amazingly easy.  You just gut the squash and chop into pieces, leaving the skin on.  Then, you throw in a couple leeks,  simmer in milk and water, and then puree the mixture.  It turns out wonderfully smooth and is delicious with the plain yogurt, granny smith apple, and toasted walnuts toppings.  I’m glad I splurged and bought really high quality whole milk because I think you can really taste the difference.  I’ll be interested in using kuri squash for other recipes.  It has a lot more flavor than your ordinary squash and I think it could go quite well in many dishes.

Katie:  I haven’t posted anything in awhile, but I’ve still found some time between studying and other activities to occasionally try something new.  For my mom’s birthday, I gave her the tough choice of requesting something sweet or salty.  She chose the latter, so I decided to try making some homemade cheesy crackers.  They were much easier to make than I expected, and they turned out great!  I made them as directed, but mixed in some smoked paprika and sprinkled them with sea salt before putting them in the oven.  The pungent smell when they came out of the oven was irresistible!

Cheddar Crackers (adapted from various online sources)