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Cumin Roasted Pumpkin and Swiss Chard with Red Lentils

September 29, 2018 Colleen Stem
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Are you as excited about pumpkin season as I am. And not because of pumpkin spice this or that, I am talking about real squash pumpkin. I am so excited, and have started a stash. I have about 10 sugar pumpkins all through the house. Equal parts fall decor and dinner. Being able to eat your decorations is key to a successful life. I am 100 percent sure about that.

So now that we have established that it’s time to eat pumpkin, we also have to realized that there are more ways to eat pumpkin then in baked goods. Savory pumpkin is just as good, if not better then sweet pumpkin. I mean, it’s a squash and don’t we all love a good ssavory squash situation? If you don’t, well you are in the wrong place my friend.

This dish here pretty much sums up all that I ever want to eat again. Roasted pumpkin with cumin is one of the best things ever. No joke. Swiss chard is definitely my favorite green, besides spinach, (and I love kale, but chard is better then kale too!) and red lentils are my favorite kind of lentils. All I all, this small list of ingredients makes for one heck of a dish. I was pre making this for dinner for Barb and the mr. and ended up making something else for dinner so I could eat and save it all for myself. I did not share one bit of this and feel zero bad about it. I mean, I made it so it is mine. They had chili, I secretly ate this.

It’s come to that. I am hiding my pumpkin and lentil dish. What is wrong with me? Ha!

Now to the best pumpkin dish ever!

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The stuff. A sugar pumpkin, some swiss chard, an onion, red lentils, a few cloves of garlic. cumin, salt and pepper, and olive oil.

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Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop the seeds out (save for roasting later), and chop into mouth sized chunks. Dice the onion up, and remove the stalk and thicker part of the rib from the chard leaves and dice up the stalk. Stick the leaves to the side.

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Place all the chopped up stuff onto a baking sheet, drizzle with a little bit of oil, dump on some cumin and sprinkle with salt and pepper then toss it all around.

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A fall roast ready for the oven.

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Once veggies are in oven roasting, make the lentils. Water and lentil in a pot, bring to a boil, turn on low and let cook until lentils are done. Once cooked, sprinkle in a pinch of salt.

Also mince up the garlic and rough chop up the chard leaves.

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Fall veggies are looking nice and roasted and tasting all so good. Toss in the minced garlic and chopped chard leaves and pop the baking sheet back into the oven for a little longer just until the garlic and leaves are cooked too.

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Look at that. So good.

Now you have your lentils and the cumin roasted pan of goodness. If you have a lime, cut that up too because it will make this all just perfect. Perfect I tell you.

Here it is. A bowl of red lentils, piled high with cumin roasted pumpkin and chard with a fresh squeeze of lime. Once you aat a few bites, tell me. Best fall dish ever, right!?!

Have a fantastic fall weekend.

-C


Cumin Roasted Pumpkin and Swiss chard with Red Lentils

serve 2-3

  • 1 pie pumpkin

  • 1 bunch of Swiss chard (between 5-6 large stalks, more if the stalks are small)

  • 1 yellow onion

  • 2-3 cloves garlic

  • 1 cup died red lentils

  • 3 cups water

  • 2 tablespoons cumin

  • A lime (optional)

  • salt and pepper

  • olive oil

Preheat oven to 400

Start by cutting pumpkin in half and removing seeds, (place seeds aside for later to roast), then cut the pumpkin into inch or so cubes. Grab the chard, remove the stalks and ribs from the leaves, place leaves to the side, and dice the stalks up. Dice onion into medium sized chunks and place all of what you have just chopped on a baking sheet. Drizzle a teaspoon or two of oil all over. Spinkle on the cumin and a pinch of salt and pepper and toss around. Evenly distribute the veggies on the pan and stick into the oven to roast, for about 25 minutes, or until the pumpkin and chard stalks are fork tender. In the meantime rough chop the leaves and mince the garlic. When the pumpkin and chard are just about done, remove pan from oven and toss in the garlic and leaves. Place pan back into oven for another 8-10 minutes or until the leaves have cooked. Remove from oven.

While the veggies are roasting, make the lentils. Place the water and lentils into a medium sized pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down to low, giving it a stir ever few minutes until lentils are soft.Once cooked, remove from heat and season with pinch of salt salt.

When the lentils are cooked and the veggies are roasted, it’s time to eat. Spoon lentils into a bowl and top with roasted veggies. Season with more salt and pepper if needed and cut up lime (optional) and squeeze juice all over. Eat right away and save any for later.

In dinner, entree, fall, Gluten Free, grain free, pulses, quick and easy, Vegan, Vegetables Tags Cumin Roasted Pumpkin and Swiss chard with Red Len, cumin, Cumin, vegan, vegan dinner, lentils, pulses, grain free, gluten free, plant based, clean eating, pumpkin, savory pumpkin, fall, fall dinner ideas, easy, protein
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Apple Walnut Brownies

September 22, 2018 Colleen Stem
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Well happy first day of fall to you! Are you as excited as I am? I am very very excited because well, cooler weather, shorter days, pretty trees, pumpkins, sweaters, and of course apples. All the apples!!

I am not going to lie, I was going to wait to do a big apple pick to start with my apple baking but this week the grocery store was selling apples form the orchard I am going to go picking from for a 77cents a pound!! I mean, I couldn’t not buy 20 lbs right? Sure I felt a little guilty that they were not hand picked by me, but in a way they were because I did hand pick them form the store so that kind of counts? Plus I am still going apple picking, today in fact so not harm in having a shit ton of apples.

Anyway, so apple brownies. Why, because why not. Slightly chewy but soft, dense, full of all the cinnamon and apple walnut flavor one could want or need to feel all the feels of the apple season. Made them and fed them to the people and they were gone within a minute. Huge success in flavor and texture. and best part, it was slightly chilly out when I made them so the oven on was extra nice, and my house smelled amazing. Oh gosh, I am just so excited that it’s fall, it’s the best time of year!

And now I am for real going apple picking! I’ll probably make these brownies again, just because you know, apples and I'll probably come home with another 100 lbs or more so you know, I’ll have the apples to do it.

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The stuff. Apples. sugar, applesauce, cinnamon, and walnuts. Also some vegan butter, flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

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FIrst, chop up the apples. And no, don’t peel them, just chop, into little 1/2 inch cubes.

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Butter and sugar get a good beat until light and fluffy (I read somewhere that when you beat the sugar with butter in brownies, it helps make that crisp, crackly top)

Fold in the apple sauce and cinnamon .

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Like a galaxy of cinnamon goodness.

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Then all the rest of the stuff: flour, baking soda and powder, salt, apples, walnuts, get folded in too until just incorporated.

Batter gets spread evenly in a greased and parchment lined pan. (There is parchment there, I was running low so it only covers the bottom of the pan. Better if it goes up the sides though.)

Then into the hot oven they go.

Popped out at just the right moment. See the top? A bit crisped crinkly, kind of like a brownie! Now pop them out of the pan and let cool completely. Or cool enough to cut. Or, cool enough to handle and eat…..

There you go, apple walnut brownies.

And now you can officially enjoy the first day of fall because there is a lot of apple goodness in these brownies and what is fall without apples?!!

Have the best day.

-C


Apple Walnut Brownies

makes a 9x9 pan of apple goodness

  • 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

  • 1 cup white sugar

  • 1/2 cup vegan butter

  • 1/2 cup applesauce

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon

  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

  • 2 large Macintosh apples (about 2 cups chopped)

Preheat oven to 350

Core and dice apples into about 1/2 inch cubes . Measure out 2 cups ans eat any left over apple chunks. In a large bowl, beat together vegan butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Fold in the applesauce and cinnamon. In a smaller bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Dump into wet mixture, along with the apples and walnuts and fold together until just evenly incorporated. Grease and parchment line a 9x9 baking sheet. Dump the batter into the pan and spread evenly then pop into oven and bake for 40- 45 minutes or until browned and a tester stuck in the middle comes out clean. Check after 35 minutes… you don’t want to over bake! Once cooked all the way through, remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Once cool enough to handle, remove the brownies from the pan (you really need to line the pan with parchment to do this) and let cool completely on a wire rack. When they are cool (if you can wait that long because really, these are great eaten warm too.), cut and eat.

Store left overs in a airtight container for a day or two or freeze any extra. Great warmed and serves with a scoop of some ice cream or a yogurt situation.

In brownies and bars, desserts, fall, fruit, Vegan, Nuts Tags Apple Walnut Brownies, vegan, vegan apple walnut brownies, apples, fall, vegan sweets, easy dessert, walnuts, fall food
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Creamy Tomato White Bean Soup

September 1, 2018 Colleen Stem
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This summer has been weird. And when I say weird, I mean too stupid freaking hot and humid and it's screwing up my life. I think I have gone a month, maybe more, without making soup. That is just not right. For as long as I can remember I have made soup, or at least eaten soup, just about everyday, even all summer long. But the terrible heat and humidity this year, I just have had no desire. It has been straight up shredded zucchini and whole tomatoes for some time now. I just don't want to have any residual added heat to my life.  But the other day, oh how lovely. I woke up with a chill,  enough that I needed to grab a long sleeve before leaving the house, and had the very strong urge to return home and get my soup on. And soup on I did!

For my first trip back into soup (oh how I missed soup!), I went simple and used what I, and many, many people have ample supplies of right now. Tomatoes. And beans because I wanted my soup to be thick and creamy and I had the beans so why the heck not.

This soup really requires very little and you get the most thick, delicious, creamy, tomatoey soup. Perfect to eat alone, but is fanatic with some crackers, or a hunk of crusty bread. And it uses a lot of tomatoes which is nice because I am (as are many of you.. My neighbor is bringing me HER tomatoes now too) trying to make a dent in the ever growing pile or these beauties on the counter. This soup dented it, until I went out to the garden a few minutes later. My pile is bigger then ever, which is fine because I am back on my soup game. 

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The stuff. Lots of tomatoes, some white beans (I used navy, but any white bean would be good) a large onion, a carrot, salt and pepper, a lemon, some olive oil, and honey (optional).

First off, chop the carrot and onion into chunks.

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Toss the chopped stuff into a big ol' pot with a drizzle of olive oil and cook on a medium heat until nice and soft. 

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While veggies are cooking, core and cut up all those tomatoes. 

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When the veggies have cooked up a bit, add the tomatoes, the beans, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper to the pot and give it a good mix. Return to high heat, stirring even so often, until the tomatoes give off enough juiced to start boiling then turn heat down to medium and cook for a little while, like 1/2 an hour or 45 minutes.

 

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Until it looks lit this. The tomatoes have all fallen apart and the beans, carrots and onions are mushy. 

Blended with the juice of the lemon and a sprinkle of pepper and more salt if needed. 

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Now serve into a  bowls. Garnish with a drizzle of honey if you are feeling it. Sliced cherry tomatoes make for fancy garnish. 

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Creamy tomato bean soup for everyone!

Hurray for soup!

-C


Creamy Tomato White Bean Soup

Makes about 1/2 gallon (enough to serve a crowed or enough to serve one for a few days and maybe freeze some for later)

  • 10-12 large tomatoes 
  • 2 1/2 cup or 1 can of cooked white beans (I used navy but any white bean will be good)
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 large carrot
  • I lemon
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • honey (optional)

Start by chopping the onion and carrot up into small chunks. Grab a large heavy bottom pot, drizzle a teaspoon or two of olive on the bottom then toss in the chopped veggies. Place the pot on a medium heat, stirring occasionally until the onion and carrot start to soften. 

While the veggies are cooking, core and cut up all the tomatoes. Once the veggies are soft, dump in all the tomatoes, along with the beans and all the liquid they are in. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and turn heat up to high, giving it a good stir until the tomatoes start to get super juicy then bring the pot to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and cook for another half hour to 45 minutes, giving it a stir ever so often.  When the tomatoes have completely fallen apart and the carrot, onions, and beans are mushy, you know its done. 

Remove the pot from heat and dd in the juice of the lemon. Using a hand blender, blend until it's a smooth creamy consistency. If you only have a counter belnder, let soup cool a little before handling and  be really freaking careful and blend a few cups at a time, making sure to have the blender lid on. Hot soup in the face is no fun.

Once soup is creamy and smooth, serve in bowls with a drizzle of honey (totally optional, but some people really like a touch of sweetness to their tomato soup) and more pepper to a taste. Garnish with thinly sliced cherry tomatoes if you are feeling fancy. 

Any extra soup can be refrigerated for up to a week. Can also be frozen. 

In Vegetables, Vegan, summer, soup, quick and easy, pulses, Dairy Free, beans Tags Creamy Tomato White Bean Soup, Tomato Soup, Soup, Beans, pulses, vegan, fall, tomatoes, fresh, simple, easy, few ingredients, creamy, gluten free, whole foods, plant based, garden food, dairy free
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Sunday Happy

October 29, 2017 Colleen Stem

I woke up this morning from a dream that I was in process of making those gummy toy things, Creepy Crawlers, but instead of them being made of rubber, I was making then out of cake. And in the dream the theme song for the commercial was playing while I was making these little insect cakes and now I have this weird dream feeling and have the stupid, but catchy theme song stuck in my head. What does this mean? Am I suppose to make a bunch of tiny little insect cakes? Or is it a cry from my child self craving bugs? I don't know, but what I do know is that they should start selling those machines again. Bring back the creepy crawlers!

Feels like the past week was one long day. The mr and I spent a good amount of time outside doing all the outside work that needed to be done. More tree cutting, raking, picking up trash, getting rid of everything. Over the course of doing all this, I cut the shit out of my hands. All my fingers and my palms have cuts and scrapes and gashes and fuck do my hands hurt. Even worse is that after doing and getting all that, we started tiling that bathroom (!!!!) and tiling with cuts all over your hands sucks ass. The mortar just eats away at your skin. Plus I sliced my finger open on a razor while tiling so my hands are garbage and swollen and I will stop bitching now. But back to tile, the bathroom is so close to done. This time next week I will be able to pee downstairs again. It's going to be fantastic. 

Other then work all week, we have had the littles a lot again. Speaking of having songs stuck in my head, I have been letting the kids listen to whatever they want when they are here which is all the newest coolest music(and it's driving me crazy). All week I have been haunted by the new Taylor Swift song. If I hear it for even a second, I get it stuck in my brain and there is will repeat over and over, especially while I am trying to sleep or relax. It has made me slightly crazy. I have now banned the listening of that song in my presence because it is just to much for me to a handle. But other then driving me crazy with crappy music, we have had some pretty good times. We saw a rainbow, talked about what to hand out to trick or treaters (there was talk of ketchup packets, back hair, and painted rocks) and the mr built  death swing in the tree. When we are not busy, they sure do keep us busy. After having them over so much over the past few weeks, I found myself fantasizing about having a Rumba vacuum, which is crazy because I really do not want one. But maybe I do? I don't know.(don't tell the mr because he thinks he wants one)  What I do know is that those kids are messy as shit and that every weekend my cleaning time has gotten a little longer because of the trail of Emerson drool and dirty feet has gotten worse. Maybe I should just wrap the baby in mop heads and have him crawl/clean. But wait, that won't work either because just this past week we got that little gorilla to walk! 10 steps all on his very own, going after an Oreo cookie like a champ.

And then the farm.  This past farm share was the last summer farm share pick up of the year. We got so much good goodies (sweet potatoes that are as big as my head and so much spinach) and I also realized that wearing my overalls down to the farm that people will mistake me as one of the framers (not the first time people mistake me as a farmer... these are life goals) But now the summer share is done and I am a little sad, but not really cause winter share starts in two weeks and I will be munching away on squash, roots, and greens for the months to come. 

Then on Friday we had our pumpkin carving party.. The mr, Megan, Barb, Miley, Sophia, and Judah all carving away. I pre gutted by pumpkin make a cinnamon sugar seed snack and had it all nice and ready to carve. I got a single cut into it when I had to  abandoned it to help all the littles carve theirs. Now the mr has his all nicely carved pumpkin on the porch and mine is just  siting there, waiting to be carved. But carve I did. Then we made pizza, did cartwheels around the block at night, and watched Hocus Pocus while eating/ getting popcorn ALL OVER the house. (Rumba would have been great here) 

I am excited for today. There is no way that I can bare tiling any more today (my hands hurt so much right now) so we are going to wait and finish tomorrow. No, today I am going to plant the trees we bought this week in the front yard. Two little eastern redbuds and then I am going to sit back and watch them grow.  That and maybe repot some house plants. I think I just want to play in dirt all day. And finally carve my pumpkin. Sounds like a good plan to me. 

Internet I looked at this week.

-Currently reading Nomadland and in it one of the woman talks about building her own Earthship. I started looking them up after that because I feel like I should be building one too. 

-To Complain Is to Truly Be Alive. I know so very alive people!

-I don't think it's gonna happen in this house, but someday I want to have cool ass wall paper wall.  DUTCH MASTERS WALLPAPERS

-Is This the Best Way to Wash an Apple? 

-We are shopping for toilets again (How many times in my life am I going to have to say that). What do you think of a black toilet? Definitely not happening in my house, but just thought it was interesting that there are so many choices.

- I bet they listen to more rock and roll too.Frequent Pot Smokers Also Have More Sex, Says Extremely Chill Study

-Wake Up, Sleepy Ikea Shoppers! But I thought that Ikea WANTED people to take naps on the beds. Huh. 

-I initially was ll, this is awesome and I want it, but after thinking about it fora little while, I don't think I would feel comfortable sleeping on it. But it's still cool. This Floating Tent Turns Bodies of Water Into a Campground

-Rooffee,’ the First Coffee for Dogs, Raises Plenty of Questions. My question  is WHY THE FUCK?

-Burn, Mummify, Compost—Different Ways to Treat the Dead. The mr and I just head an interview with the author on NPR and found it very interesting. Now I am trying to figure out what I want to happen to my dead body..... 

Pictures from the week.

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Have a great week.

 

In sunday happy, photography, internet links Tags everyday life, photography, internet links, family, pumpkins, halloween, vermont, vt, Vermonting, rainbow, creepy crawlers, fall, the good life
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Acorn Squash Quick Bread

October 14, 2017 Colleen Stem
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I forgot how amazing fall baking smells. The spiciness floating throughout the house, lingering on my clothes, in my hair, up the stairs and into the bedroom. It goes everywhere. Unfortunately it didn't last very long this time around because the mr made popcorn and then the whole house ended up smelling like a freaking movie theater, but for a little while it was so nice. I want to bake everyday just to stink the house up all nice. I might just do that. 

Everyone eats the pumpkin bread or the pumpkin this or pumpkin that. But why does't everyone harness the greatness of all the other winter squashes in baking? This I do not know. Don't get me wrong, I love pumpkin but I also think that it's very interchangeable in most baking applications. Like this quick  bread. I am sure that some people would notice that it is not pumpkin, but these same people would also enjoy the subtle difference in flavor. Acorn squash is a sweet and delicious squash and makes a fine fine bread my friends. And the acorn squash is cheaper then sugar pumpkins which is aways a plus. And the winter squash keeps longer the pumpkins so the are available longer. Acorn squash bread all winter long. (Yup, I am thinking winter already)

This bread lasted less then a day. The mr got a couple slices but some littles came over and ate almost the entire loaf. The didn't ask what kind of squash I used, they just ate it vigorously and left heir little crumbs all over. So Bean with her mouth full of bread declared it A-MAZING. From the mouth of a 5 year old.

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The stuff. The flour, baking soda and powder, salt, and cinnamon are in one bowl. The squash puree, oil, brown sugar, maple syrup, and apple cider vinegar in another .Also need a little plant milk a bit more cinnamon and sugar for topping.

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Simple simple. Whisk together the dry then whisk together the wet.

Pour wet into dry and mix until incorporated.

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And there you have it.  Acorn squash bread batter. 

Batter goes into a well greased bread pan and sprinkles all over with cinnamon sugar. Then into the oven (preheated of course) it goes.

All baked up and cooling. Like what I did there?  More circulation to the bottom  so it cools faster.. I am so smart.

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The mr came home right when I was contemplating whether it was cool enough to cut.  It wasn't but I cut it anyway. 

Have a great fall weekend!

-C  


Acorn Squash Quick Bread 

makes 1 loaf

  • 1 1/2 cups acorn squash puree*
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon plus 1 teaspoon
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar plus 1 tablespoon
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup oil 
  • 1/3 cup plant based milk
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 

*To make acorn squash puree, stick an acorn squash into a oven at 400 for about 40 minutes or until until fork tender. Remove from oven, cut in half, and let cool until you can handle it. Scoop out seeds (save for roasting) then scoop out flesh (eat skin as snack) and puree in blender. Add a splash of water if needed to get a smooth puree.

preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl mix together the squash, oil, sugar, maple, milk, and apple cider vinegar. Mix until well combined. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the baking soda and powder, the tablespoon cinnamon, salt, and flour. Pour wet into the dry and mix until combined.  Pour into a well greased loaf pan. Combine the tablespoon brown sugar and teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle on top. Pop into oven and bake for 60-65 minutes or until a tester poked into middle comes out clean.

Once cooked, remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Remove form loaf pan and let completely cool. 

Eat what you want and store the rest in an air tight container for a few days. Can be sliced and frozen too.

 

In Dairy Free, bread, desserts, fall, Vegan Tags Acorn squash, quick bread, vegan, fall, baked goods, acorn squash quick bread, not pumpkin bread, plant based, dairy free, maple syrup
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