Weekend recipe - Roasted Fall Vegetables

Colder weather brings on a need for hearty, warming food that will keep you going when the weather chills. I drag out the crock pot, much to my husband’s discontent, and start making soups and stews.  This healthy roasted seasonal vegetable recipe uses a number of seasonal vegetables and makes a hearty side-dish.  If you cannot get fresh tomatoes, a large can of peeled roma tomatoes can be used instead.

Roasted Fall Vegetables

• 1 butternut squash, seeded and in chunks
• 8 medium new potatoes, scrubbed and halved
• 2 red onions, peeled and in wedges
• 1 medium eggplant, in chunks
• 1 red, 1 yellow pepper, seeded and in chunks
• 8 whole garlic cloves
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 bay leaves
• A few sprigs of rosemary and thyme
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 5 to 7 roma tomatoes, halved

Place vegetables in the base of an enamel roasting tray and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Scatter over bay leaves, rosemary sprigs and thyme.

Drizzle generously with olive oil and toss vegetables around with the hands to coat. Place in a pre-heated oven 400F for around 20 minutes, until browning around the edges and almost cooked. If using canned tomatoes add them now, by tucking around the cooked vegetables.  Then return the pan to the oven for another 10 minutes - or until potatoes and squash are tender.

Then enjoy with a nice glass of Chianti or Barolo red wine. Great accompanying Italian meatballs but you could always eat them as a side dish with steak, chops, chicken breast or even as a meal in itself with a pasta or rice accompaniment.

If you are ready to use your crock pot, roasting oven or Dutch oven to make some fall dishes, check out the seasonal recipes page on the blog where we have posted a number of perfect choices.

Cinnful Dessert Blend beyond Dessert!

Time to bring that package of Backyard Patch Cinnful Dessert Blend that you have not been sure what to do with out into the open and create a few seasonal treats with it.

These twelve suggestions give a number of new things to try with this great blend.

Pumpkin Spice “Tea Latte”

Put seasonal spices—such as a cinnamon stick, half of a vanilla bean (pod and seeds) and some Cinnful Dessert blend in a tea infuser and place it in 2 cups steamed milk for about 5 minutes. Add the spiced milk to cups of freshly brewed hot black tea (or coffee), and top with whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel

sauce.

Pumpkin Smoothie

Blend together 2 ounces of pumpkin puree with 6 ounces of almond milk, soy milk, or fat-free milk and a dash or two of Cinnful Dessert Blend to taste. Sweeten with honey or agave nectar as desired. For a thicker smoothie, replace some milk with plain or vanilla Greek yogurt. For a frosty drink, add ice before blending.

Cinnful Sugar

Combine  ½ cup of confectioners’ sugar with 1 teaspoon of Backyard Patch Cinnful Dessert Blend.  Use the mixture to season cookies, flavor popcorn or even make a simpler version of spiced nuts.

Spice Butter Cookies

First make some Cinnful Sugar. Next, make your favorite butter cookie or sugar cookie recipe and lightly dust the top of the cookies with Cinnful Sugar before or after baking.

Holiday Special French Toast or Pancakes

Stir ½ teaspoon of Cinnful Dessert Blend into every 2 cups of French toast custard (egg-milk mixture) or 2 cups of pancake batter before cooking.

Cinnful Oatmeal

Add a dollop of pumpkin puree and a teaspoon of Cinnful Dessert Blend to a serving of cooked steel-cut oats. Sweeten to taste.

Seasonal Yogurt

Add a dollop of pumpkin puree and ½ teaspoon of Cinnful Dessert Blend to vanilla yogurt. Top with a handful of cinnamon-flavored cereal. 

Cinnful Sweet Potatoes

Bake sweet potatoes until they’re nearly done; then slice halfway through each and add a sprinkling of Cinnful Dessert Blend and a drizzle of honey or caramel sauce. Continue baking until the potatoes are done.

Seasoned Cinnamon Rice

When making instant brown rice, melt 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine in the saucepan and stir in 2 teaspoons of Cinnful Dessert Blend, then add water, salt, and rice per package directions.

Cinnful Popcorn

Drizzle popped popcorn with butter and sprinkle with Cinnful Sugar (see above) to taste. Toss to coat.

Simply Cinnful Nuts

Beat 1 egg white with 1 tablespoon of water until frothy. Add 1 pound of Almonds (or other shelled nuts) and toss to coat. Spread the nuts on a lightly oiled baking pan and dust them with Cinnful Sugar (above). Bake at 250°F for 15 minutes; then reduce the heat to 200°F and bake until the nuts are caramelized, about 45 minutes longer.  (This recipe is similar to our original Cinnful Roasted Nuts you can find in this blog from 2011.)

Cinnamon Raisin Popcorn Balls

Makes 12 (2-inch) balls.  You can wrap them airtight and keep them for 2 days, but they are best the day they are made.

6 heaping cups popped corn

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup reduced-calorie light corn syrup

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup finely chopped raisins

½ tsp. Backyard Patch Cinnful Dessert Blend

Directions:

Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Prepare a medium bowl of ice water. Put popcorn in large bowl. Combine brown sugar, corn syrup and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. As soon as the syrup starts to lightly bubble, cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar is melted and the mixture darkens, about 2 minutes. Immediately pour the mixture evenly over the popcorn; gently mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until well coated. Toss the raisins with the Cinnful Dessert Blend then gently stir into popcorn. Dip both hands in the ice water. Working quickly, press small handfuls (heaping 1/4 cup each) of the popcorn mixture firmly into 2-inch balls. (Make sure each ball gets a little bit of the raisins.) Place the balls on the prepared baking sheet. If they seem too fragile, rinse hands with cold water and press and squeeze each ball again to help keep it together. Let cool completely before storing. To store, individually wrap in plastic wrap and store in an airtight container.

Holiday Decorating Occasional Series part 1 of 5 - Scented Dough

The contributors and members of The Essential Herbal yahoo group have been discussing and trying to locate recipes for Herb Bowls.  We eventually located a description that included powdered spices.  That put me to thinking of two ways that I had been using to make scented ornaments that might also be used to create these bowls.  So to start my winter decoration and gift giving series I decided to share those recipes.  You can make them as either ornaments or bowls as the recipes create rich and seasonally scented items, that if stored properly can last several years.

Recipe One - Herbal Dough

This first is a non-edible Herb dough that can be rolled and cut with cookie cutters to make ornaments and also formed around a shape to make bowls.

Herbal Dough Ornaments

(Non-edible)

2 cups bleached (white) flour

3/4 to 1 cup steeped Cinnamon Spice Tea *

1/4 cup Salt

2 T. Cinnful Dessert Blend *

1 T. powdered orris root

Ground and whole cloves, nutmeg, and allspice

Food coloring, if desired

Boil water and steep tea for three to five minutes one bag of Cinnamon Spice Tea.  Then mix the flour, tea, salt, dessert blend, and orris root.  Mix well.  The final product will be uneven shades of beige, tan, and off-white.  At this time, you may wish to divide into several batches for tinting with food coloring.  Form the dough into 2” diameter balls by rolling between your hands or against a non-stick counter top.  OR roll flat and utilize your favorite cookie cutters to make festive shapes.

Sprinkle the ground cloves, nutmeg and allspice, either combined or separate, into a flat dish. Roll the balls in the ground spices or lightly press the cookie cutter shapes into the spices.  Then decorate using the whole spices. 

Insert a metal ornament hanger or an unfolded paperclip.  Bake in a low heat (no more than 150 degrees) for about 90 minutes.

These make wonderful homemade ornaments for a tree, wreath, garland, or holiday basket.  It is easy to do and gets the whole family involved in the decoration process.

* An exclusive, Backyard Patch herbal product, you can substitute any cinnamon based tea and plain ground cinnamon for these items.

Recipe Two - Applesauce Scented Balls

The second dough is a base of applesauce blended with ground spices.  I use this recipe to make scented balls which I hang on my herb and pine wreathes.  I have made this recipe with Girl Scout and adult groups many times.  The dough is sticky, but dried to a hard surface in a couple of hours and thoroughly dries in a few days.

I made up a batch last night and fashioned a few bowl shapes about 1 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter, thinking I can hang them from my tree this year.

Scent Applesauce Dough

(non-toxic, but I would not recommend eating htem)

1 cup applesauce, divided

¾ cup ground cinnamon

2 Tbls. ground cloves

1 Tbls. ground allspice

1 Tbls. ground nutmeg

Start with ½ cup applesauce and add spices, stir with a wooden or plastic spoon.  Add up to ½ cup more applesauce as needed to make a sticky but not runny dough.

To craft scented balls for wreathes and trees roll the dough into 1 inch balls.  Use a skewer to piece the center for ribbon to hang them.  The balls will dry to the touch in a few hours, but will take several days to become fully dry.

To see the detailed photographs of actual bowls made with ground spices, see the post for today 10/11/10 on the Essential Herbal Blog.