A sexy make-over?

Coq Au Vin in my (newish) Le Creuset.  Must have been feeling French tonight.....and I realized the only way I can get close to an entire bottle of red wine is by cooking with it.  I followed the recipe that came in the little booklet thingy that was with the Le Creuset French oven Fre bought me for my bday.  It's a winner of a recipe and the pics turned out like a sexy makeover.....plain and simple before, saucy and tempting after. :-)

BEFORE the oven:

AFTER the magic:

Poppy Seed Cookies - Simple but perfect

I pretty much forget about poppy seeds until the holidays come around and I start dreaming about the poppy seed bread my Grandma Arndt used to make every Christmas (a recipe I'm still working to perfect).  As I was driving home a few nights ago I heard a bit on NPR about these two women who collect old recipes.  They told this great story about an Aunt of theirs who was famous for her poppy seed cookies.  Having never made them, and feeling like it's kinda the beginning of the holidays and therefore poppy seed time in my world, I decided to give them a crack this morning.  They're simple, quick and perfect to eat by the handful.

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup poppy seeds

1 cup peanut oil ( I used canola, turned out just fine)

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cover a 14 X 16-inch baking sheet with foil, shiny side up. Coat the foil with vegetable spray or use a silicone liner.

Sift together flour and baking powder; add poppy seeds.

Separately, whisk peanut oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix to combine. Chill the dough in the refrigerator one hour, or until firm enough to handle.

Using your hands, break off teaspoon-size pieces of dough and roll into small balls. Place dough balls on baking sheet about 2 inches apart, or 12 cookies per sheet. Pat into circles with your fingers (rather than rolling or stamping). Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned around edges. Let cookies cool 1 minute on baking sheet on rack and then transfer cookies to a rack. Cookies will become crisp as they cool.

Butternut Squash Pasta

Last weekend it was a little "chilly" ( ya know, in the low 70's) here in FL, so I was in the mood to make something that felt like fall.

I improvised a butternut squash pasta sauce (roasted the butternut squash in the oven, pureed it in the food processor with some buttermilk, thyme, salt, pepper, sauteed onions & garlic and a tab bit of nutmeg).  To up the veggie content of the dish I used half pasta and half steamed cauliflower.

Of course I added some Parmesan cheese into the pasta sauce, threw it all into a dish with some fresh basil chicken I had roasted in the oven, sauteed mushrooms and topped it off with a decent amount of munster cheese.

It was a completely made-up recipe/dish, but it's a keeper!  And if you go with low-fat cheese, or lower the amount of cheese, this is completely guilt-free but really creamy and satisfying.