Butternut Squash Dip

Fall has officially arrived when my counters are filled with pears and pumpkins, hooks are covered in coats, rain boots have a slot next to the dresser, and the warmly spiced smell of change is in the air. We have now celebrated my brother's, my mom's, and my birthday this month. October has always encompassed change, parties, favorite foods, and the milestone of a new age to embrace.

This is one of the bigger birthday years for me. So far in my timeline, 20 felt like a huge jump. Going from teenage status, to an age that began with twenty just sounded incredibly old to me...back then. Although I have generally been someone to celebrate a new age. My parents have always made birthdays a fun celebration in our family, which in turn, has always made it feel like an exciting time. I generally see it as an opportunity to make changes in my life. This is year no different in that regard, but I have a significantly new perspective. I gather it is a result of so much change in the past year. I have completely repaved the yellow brick road.

Butternut squash dip can be a metaphor. Normally I would have pureed roasted butternut squash into a soup with the pears sitting near the window sill, which I did do a few weeks ago. But there are so many new flavors and dimensions to experiment with. So why not give it a try? A new recipe may sprout from this experience, or a new recipe never to be made again may also happen. Either way, a culinary adventure awaits when we open our eyes to the endless possibilities that are at our finger tips. So try something new today or this week. Whether it is putting sweet potato in your smoothie, admitting and embracing the fact that you like a certain R&B song, or booking that trip you daydream about. Regardless of the outcome, you have grown and expanded your horizons into becoming an even better form of yourself. Motto for the day: Just go with it...the future awaits.

Butternut Squash Dip
Makes 2 to 3 cups

This dip was concocted through major trial and error. I wanted it to be a somewhat sweet dip, that vegetables, pita chips, or fruit could be dipped. But I also wanted the squash-like flavor to be mellowed. I suspect the honey and tahini were major players in rounding out the earthiness. Pumpkin or any other squash puree can be substituted for the butternut squash.

2 cups butternut squash puree*
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 pinches cayenne pepper, or more to taste
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons tahini
1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Stir squash puree, yogurt, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and cayenne together in a medium bowl. Place honey, tahini, and butter in a small bowl. Heat honey mixture in microwave until butter is melted and mixture is easily stirred. Stir honey mixture into squash mixture until fully incorporated. Serve chilled or warm.

*Directions for roasting butternut squash:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and pulp attached. Seeds can be roasted just like pumpkin seeds if desired. Place squash halves, cut-side up, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or Silpat. Brush the squash flesh with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in the preheated oven until a knife is easily inserted into the center of the squash, about 1 hour. Remove from oven and cool. Remove skin from squash. Place squash in a food processor and blend until completely smooth.

Warm Potato and Apple Salad

It is Recipe Swap time of month again where Christianna of Burwell General Store gives us a recipe from a vintage cookbook to alter and create into our own. This month is Russian Salad, which worked out quite nicely because I happen to have some leeks in the refrigerator. While the original recipe did sound delightful (minus the herrings), my mind went immediately to potato leek soup. So potato salad and warm soup synergized, creating warm potato salad.

Potato salad was always a food item I took two steps away from at picnics and potlucks...until I discovered the vinegar-based versions. So Russian Salad was just the inspiration needed to hop on board the fall foods and use an apple in the potato salad, which actually adds a nice crunch. You bite into the salad not knowing if it is an apple or a potato.

We have been having the most amazing fall in Seattle. It is pretty uncommon to have consistently sunny days in the 70s in October, so my brain hasn't been thinking about autumn foods. All the magazines and department store windows are on schedule with the season, but our open-toed shoes and short-sleeved dresses are speaking another language. So the potato and apple salad was the gateway to also roasting my first butternut squash of the season today for a curried squash and pear soup.

Fall is always the time of year of new beginnings. School goes back in session, summer activities end and we start having more of a regular schedule, my mom, brother, and I all celebrate our birthdays, and Halloween is the start of the holiday season. I usually take this time of year to check on my New Year's resolutions, seeing if I have overlooked any one in particular. I reflect on the past year, and make goals and plans for the approaching new age. This week has now become listing making week and going through clothes, papers, etc. to get rid and start anew. The seasonal clean-up has begun. So thank you Christianna and Russian potato salad for getting me into the season of new!

Warm Potato and Apple Salad
Makes 4 to 6 servings

You can also go more along the lines of the Russian Salad and add hard-boiled eggs and chicken for a heartier salad. Or serve it alongside roasted chicken and a spinach salad.


4 red potatoes, cubed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 leek, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1 apple, cubed
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Fill a large pot of water with salted water and bring to a boil. Add potatoes and boil until tender enough to break with fork, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

While potatoes are boiling, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium heat; saute leek until fragrant and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir apple, garlic, and additional 1 tablespoon olive oil into leek. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until apples are slightly tender, 5 to 10 more minutes.

Whisk vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt and pepper together in a bowl; stream 3 tablespoon olive oil in while constantly whisking until fully incorporated. Stir in parsley.

Toss potatoes, leek-apple mixture, and dressing together in a large bowl. Serve warm or chilled.

Recipe for Living

This month marks the two year anniversary of An Open Cookbook, and handfuls of new life lessons. Many components of my life have changed and evolved in the past year. A new job, a completely redecorated apartment, a new wardrobe, many new people, and a new perspective on life have been a few of those changes. Another change you may have noticed is fewer blog entries each month, although I get just as antsy to write. My new life lends itself to a variety of activities. When I do have the chance to sit down and enter a post, you can be guaranteed it is from the heart. With that said, here are the main lessons learned this past year...

Recipe for Living

Do a normal activity in a subtly different way every day, whether it is holding your coffee cup in the opposite hand or taking a slightly different route to work. These small changes lead to bigger ones.

If you break into a cold sweat at the thought of doing something, like whitewater rafting or having lunch with a stranger, do it anyway. You will undeniably grow from the experience.

Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.  - Class of '99; Wear Sunscreen Song

No one cares if you are sitting at the bar by yourself at a restaurant. What really matters is that you are there.

Upgrading your life can mean buying an expensive wallet or a new piece of furniture. Or it can mean becoming friends with a person that intimidates you. Whatever moves you forward in life, go with it.

Action expresses priorities. -Ghandi

Pushing yourself on the yoga mat, in the weight room, or at the stove prepares you for life's challenges. Sweat everyday for practice.

Everyone comes into our lives for a reason. Just go with it.

Our flaws make us human, and much more interesting.

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. -e.e. cummings

Do something creative everyday.

Sometimes the road we are on looks different than we had envisioned. Keep going.

Order the special from time to time. You can always go back for the regular menu.

Forget about the word 'should'...it isn't productive or genuine. Your heart knows best. Follow it.

Honesty will set you free.

If you get strongly defensive about something, you may have something to learn from the experience.

Take a few seconds before speaking during an important conversation. They can be more valuable than gold.

Sometimes getting to the next flight of stairs means letting go of the railing.

Fill your house and your life with people and things that inspire you and make you happy.

Take a sip of bourbon sometime. It burns going down, but your wisdom becomes greater.

Keep a list of goals in your wallet. Work toward them. Reach them. Make new goals.

Get the dark chocolate with hazelnuts and savor every bite. Just don't eat the whole bar in one sitting.

Bourbon and Maple-Glazed Bacon Cake

 It is recipe swap time again. Christianna of Burwell General Store located a new vintage cookbook called 'Nebraska Pionner Cookbook', featuring this month's recipe 'Pork Fruit Cake'. You read that correctly. If you need visual affirmation, please see below for details of handling the one pound pork.

But actually let's backtrack a second. One of my New Year's resolutions for the past few years has been to begin liking bourbon. This ongoing desire has been on of those nagging things in the back of the brain. I have consciously made myself like a lot of food items in the past few years. I used to have an aversion to eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, and olives. It was so strong, that one might think I was a Mediterranean omelet in my past life. To top it all off, my aversion to seafood is even stronger. So much so, that I am quite sure I was a mermaid or pirate in my past life. That one is still going strong.

But over the past few years, I grabbed the fork, and started slowly but surely, exposing myself the above-mentioned items. And to my pleasant surprise, have come to love them. I now always have olives and eggs in my refrigerator. Tomatoes and mushrooms make a lesser appearance, but appearance nonetheless.

So recently, I drove myself to the grocery store and bought a bottle of bourbon. Maybe if I keep it in my house, I can try a sip here and there and learn to like it. The idea of sipping on a warm shot of bourbon is quite nice. And my bourbon-loving friend J came over last night, and helped me through the exercise.

So naturally, as I was coming up with an alternative recipe to the pork fruit cake, I thought, why not toss a little bourbon into the cake batter? It goes well with maple syrup, cinnamon, and vanilla. I have recently learned of candied bacon, so this seemed like a natural addition to the recipe. Everyone in Seattle seems to have bacon admiration, so why not join my neighbors and cook it into a dish that doesn't normally have bacon. T and M came over for brunch this morning after the hardest yoga class I have ever experienced...108 sun salutes. So we came home, ate quiche, bacon cake, peach bread, berries, and champagne..and life was good.

The best part of post-party remnants, is the evidence of a fun time.

Bourbon and Maple-Glazed Bacon Cake
8 to 12 servings


4 thick slices bacon
2 tablespoons maple syrup
ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons molasses
2 eggs
1 tablespoon bourbon
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup flour

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Preheat oven for 350 degrees. Line an 8x8-inch baking pan with parchment paper or generously butter.

Pan-fry bacon slices in a skillet over medium heat until almost done, about 6 minutes per side. Pour in maple syrup and sprinkle with black pepper. Cook, stirring and flipping occasionally, until bacon begins to crisp and maple syrup and bacon drippings start bubbling, about 5 more minutes. Remove bacon from pan; let cool on a plate until crisp. Crumble bacon when cooled.

Whisk maple syrup, molasses, eggs, bourbon, cinnamon, vanilla, cream of tartar, baking soda together in a bowl until evenly combined. Stir in flour; mix until smooth. Fold 3/4 of the crumbled bacon into the batter. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake until the edges of the cake begin to pull away from the sides and the center bounces back if you press it, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle cake with brown sugar and remaining 1/4 bacon crumbles. Bake until brown sugar starts to bubble and bacon crisps, about 5 more minutes.

Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a cooling rack.

Chicken and Artichoke Marinara

My coworkers and I had a stint of Friday lunches at a little Italian restaurant. They make fresh pasta daily, and post the menu just before opening at 11am. Naturally, our stomachs began rumbling at approximately 10:55am. On one such day, they tempted us with a 9-layer lasagna oozing with Bechamel, sun-dried tomato pesto, and Bolognese sauce spread onto the layers, respectively. If that wasn't enough to give someone vertigo, they strategically inserted hard-boiled eggs into the mix. Yes. The richness continues.

Almost in unison, we peeled ourselves off the floor, gathered our wallets, and run-walked down the street. We were slowly cranked on an invisible pasta wheel to our epic fate.

We arrived promptly at 11:30 with our forks held high. Our steaming plates of freshly cut 9-layer lasagna arrived just as punctually. There are a few times in life where I consciously eat slowly, savoring every bite. This was one of those experiences. Conversation stopped and small noises escaped our lips. We were shaking our head no, meaning yes. I saved almost all of my hard-boiled eggs for the last five bites. By the time I had eaten the majority of the dish, defeat started creeping in...but I pushed through. Napkin thrown into the cleaned bowl.

We crawled up the stairs and slowly made our way to the couch displays in the back of a furniture store. The three of us aligned ourselves on the white leather couch and took a ten minute nap before rolling back to the office. The walk helped, but about two hours later, A looked over to find my head on the keyboard. Food coma won.

Chicken and Artichoke Marinara

2 to 4 servings

This recipe is a concoction of stocked ingredients I used for girls' dinner party the night before a vacation. As you can see, I lean toward Italian-style ingredients and wanted to recreate the lasagna coma, without the pasta. Serve over fresh pasta for a full meal or alongside bread, cheese, and pate.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup tomato sauce

1 cup water

2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried oregano

3 tablespoons tomato paste

3 chicken breasts, cut into large pieces

Salt and black pepper

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 to 2 tablespoons butter

1 cup chopped green olives

3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced in 1/4-inch rounds

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over low heat; saute red onion until browned and caramelized, about 15 minutes. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir chicken stock, tomato sauce, water, thyme, oregano, tomato paste into onion and garlic; cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until flavors have blended, about 10 minutes.

Coat chicken pieces generously with salt and pepper on both sides. Sprinkle and press with flour until fully coated. Heat butter in a separate skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken in the melted butter until no longer pink in the center, 6 to 8 minutes per side. Add cooked chicken, olives, and eggs to the simmering marinara. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for a few more minutes to combine flavors.