Thayer in the Kitchen

This soup is a combination of a number of recipes that I found online. I originally found one that called for you to roast a bulb of garlic, but I didn't have that much garlic and truthfully didn't want to want to go to that much trouble. Penzey's spices has a bottled spice "Roasted Garlic" that will substitute quite nicely. Another one that I found but haven't tried called for fresh sage which sounds delicious. Many of them call for either dry or fresh ginger. I use bottled ginger in my soup and it worked well. Now to the basic recipe. Preheat oven to 400 degrees:  3-4 lb. butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks 1 medium to large sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks 1 large carrot (or 2 medium), peeled and cut into chunks  1 apple Honeycrisp is good or what you have available, cored and roughly chopped 1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped Mix with 3 T. olive or avocado oil and small amount of cracked black pepper.  Place on baking pan, use 2 if...

This is a tomatoe sauce recipe that doesn't require peeling or blanching and very little cooking. If you don't have enough Roma tomatoes for the whole recipe, just substitute what you have available. 2 1/2# Roma tomatoes cut into 1-2 " pieces 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1 glove garlic, rough chopped 2 tablespoons olive oil Add tomatoes, salt, and pepper to large pot and stir. Bring tomatoes to a boil over medium heat and cook for 20 minutes. The tomatoes will start to break down. Add garlic and olive oil and stir. At this point, either use an immersion blender or a stand blender to process the sauce. I used my blender which is a BlendTec and it completely processed the tomatoes into a lovely smooth sauce. You can use the sauce immediately or refrigerate or freeze it for future use. Adapted from Brooklyn Farm Girl

 Ingredients: 1 pint cherry tomatoes cut in 1/2 1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots (about 1) 2 teaspoons sliced garlic (about 2 cloves) 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon sherry or red wine vinegar 1 teaspoon honey 1/2-1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1# mild fish fillets such as cod or halibut 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest chopped fresh basil, for serving chopped fresh mint, for serving Preparation: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place the tomatoes, shallots and garlic in 9X13 in baking pan. Whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt & pepper. Pour over the tomatoes and combine. Roast until the tomaotes have collapsed or about 15 minutes.  While the tomotes are cooking, pat the fish dry and brush with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Toss the tomatoes and move to the sides of the dish. Place the fish in the center. Bake until the fish is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork, about 10-12 minutes depending on how thick the fish is. Spr...

This is a new smoothie recipe that I found on The View from Great Island blog. Sue typically has great recipes and this one is no exception. I particularly like it because it is quick and easy; you use raw rhubarb which is quite unusual.  I think you could also use frozen rhubarb after the season for fresh rhubarb was over. I  doubled her original recipe to make a blender full which is the right amount for breakfast for my husband and myself. 2 cups sliced raw rhubarb 2 cups strawberries (fresh or frozen) I usually use frozen 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (dairy milk would be fine as well) 1 cup yogurt of your choice, I usually use whole milk vanilla yogurt 1-2 tablespoons honey (optional) taste before adding 1 scoop protein powder of choice (optional) Add all the ingredients into your blender and blend until thick and smooth.  If necessary you can add more liquid depending on your blender.  

Ingredients: 1 3/4 cup (210 grams) all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons sugar 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1 3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk (don't substitute) 2 large eggs 2-3 teaspoons vanilla 1 stick unsalted butter (8 tablespoons) melted and slightly cooled nonstick cooking spray 1/2 cup chopped nuts, such as pecans or walnuts (optional) Real maple syrup or whipped cream, and fresh berries or jam or lemon curd for serving Directions: In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla (either 2 or 3 teaspoons, I used 1 tablespoon). Whisk this mixture into the flour mixture until a batter is formed. Some lumps are OK. Whisk in the butter carefully. Do not over mix. Add the nuts if using. We like nuts in our waffles. Spray both sides of the preheated waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray. Pour in enough batter to cover the surface. Let the waffle...

  I used a frozen whole grain pie shell from the store to prepare this quiche. You could certainly use a homemade crust as well. Something I did this time was to let the crust defrost slightly and transfer the crust to my glass pie pan. It is a little larger than those aluminum pans. So often I find with the purchased crusts that they don't hold all of the filling. When you put the filling in your own pan you can stretch it out a bit. Then I prebaked it as the per the instructions on the frozen crust. Actually, I baked it a little less. Ingredients: 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup milk (or 1/2 & 1/2) 4 eggs 8 ounces shredded pepper jack cheese (or another cheese of your choice) 4 cups fresh spinach (chopped if leaves are large) 1/2 t. Kosher salt 1/4 t. pepper 1 9" deep dish unbaked frozen pie shell Instructions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add all the ingredients except for pie shell in a large bowl and combine well. Pour into pie crust. Cover lightly with foil and bake for 4...