Devon's Cooking...Award-Winning Butternut Squash Chili

Award-winning? What award, Devon? The International Chili Society's Annual Cookoff? The Chili Appreciation Society International Cookoff?

Well, hmmm... no, nothing so elementary as those cookoffs. Today, I placed second (out of two entries, but, hey, I got me a medal!) in the 2nd Annual Grossmont College Chili Cook-off! Kudos to our President for whipping up a mean soy-rizo chili to beat my chili down, but I heard some good thoughts about my Butternut Squash Chili, as well. I also made this for 3 hungry men (and Ronna and Jen and I) on Sunday and made football-watchin' guys pretty happy and satiated... so this chili satisfies!

BUTTERNUT SQUASH CHILI with QUESO FRESCO

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped red bell pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
4 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash (about 1 pound) (you can buy this pre-cut at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods...much easier!)
2 16 oz. cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup frozen whole-kernel corn
1 teaspoon salt
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, undrained
1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, undrained
3/4 cup (3 ounces) crumbled queso fresco

Directions: Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic; cover and cook 5 minutes or until tender. Add chili powder and cumin; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Place onion mixture in a 5-quart electric slow cooker. Add butternut squash and next 6 ingredients (through chiles). Cover and cook on low 8 hours or until vegetables are tender and chili is thick. Sprinkle with cheese.

Devon's Cooking...A Soup-Stravaganza!

We San Diegans are pretty unfamiliar with the wet stuff that comes out of the sky elsewhere around the globe... but every now and again, San Diego gets a deluge of rain that rocks our world a little bit. Last week was our rainy season (one week of rain... I know, I know-- we've lived in Denver, we've lived in Boston, we should be grateful for one week of rain. But we're spoiled now!) and I'm a firm believer that there's nothin' better on a cold and rainy day than a nice hot bowl of soup. So last week was Soup-Stravaganza at the Atchison house. We had Pumpkin Soup (yum!) and grilled veggie panins and then, later in the week, we had Portuguese Caldo Verde soup (potatoes, kale and turkey sausage). These soups hit the spot!

PUMPKIN-WHITE BEAN SOUP
INGREDIENTS:
1 spray(s) olive oil cooking spray, or enough to coat pot
1 medium onion(s), coarsely chopped
15 oz canned pumpkin
3 1/2 cup(s) fat-free chicken broth
15 1/2 oz canned white beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 tsp ground oregano
1/8 tsp table salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp black pepper, or to taste
6 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS: Coat a large soup pot with cooking spray and set over medium-low heat. Add onion, cover and cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes. Stir in pumpkin, broth, beans and oregano; simmer 8 minutes. Using an immersion blender, blend soup until smooth and then season with salt and pepper. To serve, ladle soup into bowls and top each with 1 tablespoon of grated cheese. Yields about 1cup per serving.

PORTUGUESE CALDO VERDE
INGREDIENTS
1/2 pound turkey sausage, casings removed
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound russet (baking) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
6 cups water
1 pound kale, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves very thinly sliced

DIRECTIONS: Heat cooking spray in a 5-quart heavy pot over medium-high heat and brown sausage, stirring often, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Re-spray the pot with cooking spray and cook onion and garlic with 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper over medium heat, stirring often, until browned, 7 to 8 minutes. Add potatoes, water, and 1 teaspoon salt and simmer, covered, until potatoes are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Mash some potatoes into soup to thicken, then add kale and simmer, uncovered, until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in sausage and cook until just heated through, 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Devon's Cooking...Homemade Ravioli with Ricotta, Sage and Pepper Butter

As you may have read a few blog posts back, my pasta machine was having some issues back in August... such bad issues, in fact, that I had hung my machine up, so to speak (not strung it up, which is what I would've liked to do the night it started acting up!) But I have been feeling that little glimmering under the surface of a desire to bring it back down from its shelf of exile and give it another shot.

The perfect opportunity arose when we had the Davies and the Heavys over for dinner last Friday night. Ronna is a vegetarian (or maybe she's a pescatarian, but I didn't want to screw up and try to feed her something she wouldn't eat?), so I wanted to come up with something delicious and veg.... and thus realized that ravioli would be the perfect way to go. Having failed at homemade pasta before, however, I was reticent to get back on the horse (sorry, this is the blog post of mixed metaphors. I was up at 4:00 this morning making chili-- see the chili blog post above). So I turned to the most trusted Austrian for some advice. Wolfgang, oh slinger of gourmet woodfired pizzas and funny sounding restaurants in Los Angeles, you have never failed me and this was no exception! The ravioli turned out amazing. The secret, as dear Mr. Puck advised, was to run the dough through the machine 3 different times, each time folding it in thirds, crosswise. I shall never fear the pasta machine again!!

HOMEMADE PASTA DOUGH
Ingredients
1.5 cups flour
1.5 cups semolina flour
8 large egg yolks
1 tsp salt
1 tsp. olive oil
4-6 TBSP water

Directions: In a food processor, mix teh flours, yolks, salt, oil and 2 TBSP of the water. Process until the dough begins to stick together, gradually add 1 TBSP of water at a time, until the dough forms into a moist ball. Move the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rise at room temp for about 1 hour. When dough has rested, cut it into sections (keep unused sections wrapped in plastic wrap) and run through the rollers (about 3 times, folding the dough crosswise into thirds each time). For the ravioli, you'll roll out long strips of pasta that are about 4 feet or so long.

RAVIOLI FILLING:

Ingredients:
1 cup Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
2 egg yokls
1/2 tsp kosher salt
pinch of pepper
1 cup goat cheese
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp chopped fresh sage (about 8 leaves)
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme

Directions: Mix all ingredients in food processor until well-combined. Cover and refrigerate. To make the tortellini, take your pasta strips, brush with egg wash (2 eggs and 2 TBSP water beaten together), then place a spoonful of the ricotta mixture in the center of the dough. Fold the dough in half to cover the ricotta and push down around each ricotta mound to push out all air bubbles. Cut around the mounds using either a 2-inch cookie cutter or a ravioli stamp. To cook, drop into boiling water for 5 minutes (you'll need to cook this in 3 batches).

For the Sage and Pepper Butter sauce:
Ingredients:
1.5 sticks unsalted butter
pinch of salt
freshly ground pepper
2 fresh sage leaves

Directions: In a small saucepan, melt the butter over meidum heat, add salt, pepper and sage and cook until the butter is golden brown. Keep it warm while you finish cooking the tortellini. To serve, drizzle the brown butter over the tortellini, grate fresh parmesan on top and top with a decorative sage leaf. Enjoy!