Hello hello! Sorry it has been so quiet around here. Karol and I have been working on a side project related to NMM the last few weeks that has kept us away from here [more details on that in the near future!].

Just because it has been quiet around here doesn’t mean it’s been quiet in my kitchen. Autumn is well underway here in Western Pennsylvania and I have been busy testing new recipes with lots of fall ingredients like pumpkins, butternut squash, and apples. This week, I’m sharing with you one of my favorite side dishes that is sweet and spicy. I served it recently at a dinner party along with some sauteed greens and stuffed red bell peppers, and it stole the show. Enjoy!

Spicy Maple-Glazed Carrots & Sweet Potatoes

Creates: 6 size-dish sized servings

• 4 medium-sized sweet potatoes
• 4 carrots
• 1 teaspoon all spice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together all of the spices.

Wash and peel the sweet potatoes and carrots. Cut the sweet potatoes and carrots into 1/2 inch pieces.

In a baking dish, toss together the chopped sweet potatoes, carrots, maple syrup and spice blend.

Bake for 30 minutes, remove the baking dish from the oven, and turn over the sweet potatoes and carrots to recoat them with the maple syrup.

Return the baking dish to the oven and bake for another 25 minutes, until the sweet potatoes and carrots are tender.

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So far,so good September. I’ve been eating [more than] my share of late summer vegetables recently, and there are still a few more weeks before it’s time for pumpkins and apples and all the other delicious autumn goodies.

The warm days and cool nights mean that I alternately crave salad and soup [more soup recipes forthcoming!]. Here is a recipe for a great salad that uses a lot of the seasonal produce that’s available right now, but won’t be for much longer …

Late Summer Salad

Creates: 6 dinner-sized salads

• 1/2 french baguette, cubed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 small green zucchini, diced
• 1/4 white onion, diced
• 6 leaves of radicchio, hand shredded into bite-sized pieces
• 1 can white cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• Salt/pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. On a baking sheet, coat the cubed french baguette pieces with two tablespoons of olive oil. Toss with the chopped rosemary. Bake for about 10 minutes until the bread pieces are dried out and toasted.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the chopped tomatoes, zucchini, onion, and torn pieces of radicchio with one can of cannellini beans. Add salad and pepper to taste, along with about two tablespoons of lemon juice. Stir to combine.

Cover the salad and refrigerate for about two hours. Toss in bread cubes before serving.

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I am really excited for September this year. September to me means warm days and cool nights, late summer corn, lots of tomatoes, and figs.

You already know that I love to stuff vegetables, so I thought a recipe that allowed me to stuff tomatoes with corn would give us a good way to maximize enjoying the bounty this time of year. [I couldn't think of a good way to work figs into this recipe or I would have!]

If you have a grill, by all means, you can do almost everything for this recipe – grilling the corn and heating the stuffed tomatoes – on the grill. If you don’t [like me!] your oven will do the trick.

Roasted Corn & Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes

Creates: 8 stuffed tomatoes

• 1 cup red quinoa
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 ears of corn, husked and silks removed
• 8 large tomatoes, hollowed
• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

In a saucepan with a lid, bring 1 cup of red quinoa to boil with 2 cups of water. Reduce the heat and allow the quinoa to simmer, covered, for about 10-15 minutes until all the water is absorbed.

While the quinoa is cooking, rub 2 tablespoons of olive oil on 3 ears of corn. Put the oiled ears of corn on a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, shake the pan so the corn roasts evenly. Roast for an additional 10 minutes.

Using a paring knife, cut a circular hole through the top of each tomato. Remove the circle and using a spoon, remove the insides of the tomato. Discard the seeds and core, and dice any usable internal parts. Toss the diced parts into a large mixing bowl.

Add the cooked quinoa, jalapeno, onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and crushed red pepper flakes to the mixing bowl as well. Once the corn has roasted, remove the ears from the oven and allow them to cool. When the corn is cool, hold each ear vertically, and using a paring knife, remove the kernels from the cob.

Add the corn kernels to the qunioa mixture, and toss to combine. Spoon the corn and quinoa filling into the hollowed tomatoes. Place the stuffed tomatoes on a baking sheet and bake them at 400 degrees for 10 minutes until cooked through.

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The heat seems to have finally broken [around here at least] and I am back in my kitchen cooking. I spent a lot of this summer on the road [and in the air] and am excited to share some new recipes with all of you.

A lot of time traveling means that I often come home to find only a few odds and ends in my fridge. This week was no exception. I arrived home to find only a few usable ingredients: two carrots, some frozen spinach, and a few cloves of garlic on a forgotten head.

A quick trip to the grocery store yielded not only a box of rice noodles but also some fresh mushrooms and scallions to turn my fridge finds into a real dinner. Here’s what I made:

Noodles with Stir Fry Vegetables

Creates: 4 generous dinner portions

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 3 scallions, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 large yellow onion, diced
• 2 carrots, cut into thin strips
• 1/2 cup frozen spinach, thawed
• About 12 small mushrooms, cleaned, stems removed, and cut in thin strips
• 1 box of rice noodles
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

In a small mixing bowl, whisk the soy sauce and brown sugar together with a fork so the sugar dissolves. Set aside. In a large skillet [or a wok! if you have one] heat the vegetable oil. Once the oil is hot, add the scallions, minced garlic, and diced onion.

While the scallions, garlic, and onion are softening, bring about 5 cups of water to boil in a large pot. Once the water is boiling, add the rice noodles and cook for about 5 minutes, depending on the type of width of the noddle, until they are cooked through.

Once the scallions, garlic, and onion are soft, add the carrots, spinach, and mushrooms to the skillet. Cook all the vegetables for another 5 minutes. Strain the rice noodles and rinse them with cold water. [Rice noodles tend to be a bit gummy and rinsing them in cold water will wash off some of the gummy starch.] Toss the rice noodles with a tablespoon of sesame oil before adding them to the skillet with the vegetables.

Add the soy/brown sugar sauce to the rice noodles and vegetables; toss everything to combine.

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I found myself stuck in an airport last week for several hours due to bad weather. While waiting for my very delayed flight, I flipped through a stack of magazines and ran across a recipe for a meaty chili with fresh cherries. I made a mental note to incorporate some fresh cherries as a seasonal twist on my favorite vegan chili recipe. I made the chili this weekend and despite how unconventional adding cherries may seem, the chili turned out to be sweet and delicious. I would highly recommend trying it out while they’re still in season.

Chili with Cherries

Creates: 8 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot, diced

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons chipotle sauce

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 1/2 cups fresh cherries, halved and pitted

In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the diced onion, carrot, and minced garlic. Allow the onion, carrot, and garlic to soften and cook for a few minutes. Add the spices- chili powder, ground cumin, and chipotle sauce to the vegetable and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the can of diced tomatoes and beans to the pot. Bring the chili to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Add the cherries and stir to combine, cook for 15 minutes.

[This recipe also freezes well if you don't want to eat chili four days in a row! ]

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