.operation blog november.

Those of you on my Twitter are already aware of this but for the rest of you, my November goal is to get this little ol' blog cooking again! I've missed it! Miss Tyler is getting better and better, which gives me time to plan, cook and write. I'm very happy about that.

So, for my coming back meal I have something pretty damn tasty to share.

I bought an acorn squash last week, with plans to just cook it the classic acorn squash way- roasted with butter and brown sugar. But I have already shown y'all that recipe. So, I think we should switch it up. I also have some goat cheese in the fridge. Yeah, I think you know where I'm going with this.

The tartness of the goat cheese and the sweetness of the squash is a pairing I will never get tired of. I found it best to rake all of the squash from the rind and mix it with the goat cheese before eating. It was delicious! I served it with pan fried tilapia and corn.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Acorn Squash serves 2
1 acorn squash
2 ounces goat cheese
Olive oil
1 Tablespoon butter
Garlic salt, chili powder and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the acorn squash in half and remove the seeds. Place 1/2 Tablespoon of butter in each half, drizzle with olive oil and season with garlic salt, chili powder and pepper. Bake for 40 minutes, then place 1 ounce of goat cheese in each half. Bake for another 10 minutes.

XO

.pizza for your patience.

Oh. Uh. Hi guys. *sheepish look*

So... uh.... yeah. Long time no see. Not really sure what happened this month. I kind of just dropped off the face of the earth I guess. Unfortunately I'll probably do the same when the baby gets here next month.

I do have something way tasty to share with you though! And perhaps it will make up for my lack of posting? Yeah, okay, it's not really that great so it probably won't. It is most delicious though.

I made an awesome, super quick and easy, homemade pizza! And I didn't even burn the bottom this time. Go me! The dough I made for the crust is probably the easiest pizza dough ever. It only requires about 15 minutes of rise time. I love this because it's great for super busy folks. Nobody wants to sit around waiting for dough to rise for an hour! You can make this with all purpose flour or, as I did, with half wheat flour.

Fastest Pizza Dough Ever makes 1 large pizza crust or 2 large thin crusts
1 package of yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon oil
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place yeast and warm water in a mixer bowl. Let the yeast dissolve. Stir in the oil, flour and salt. Stir to combine into a ball then knead the dough for 10 minutes. Place the dough back in the bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Place the bowl on top of the stove over the warm oven. Let rise for 15 minutes.

Spray a baking sheet with a cooking spray, or lightly oil. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead for another few minutes. You can roll it out with a rolling pin or just use your hands to stretch it out on the pan like I did. Prick around the dough with a fork and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and place sauce, cheese and desired toppings on the pizza. Bake for another 12-14 minutes. Last night I used mozzarella cheese, olives, baby bella mushrooms and goat cheese. It was delish!


Enjoy!

XO

.fried goat cheese with cherry preserves.

That's really all that needs to be said. Seriously.

But, y'all know I have more to say so, let's just get to it. First of all, how incredibly excited was I to find this at Trader Joe's!

So excited. No joke. I heard they had one serving size goat cheese medallions and indeed they do! And in cute little 6 medallion bunches! I love it! I bought two bunches. If you don't have a Trader Joe's close to you.... well, I feel bad for you. Really, I do. But I will eat the hell out of my goat cheese medallions without guilt. Sorry.

In May I went to a restaurant with some family and one of the appetizers was fried goat cheese. I tried it and was so impressed. It was delicious. They combined it with a nice balsamic vinegar sort of thing and I could have eaten like 50 of them. So, when deciding what to make with my adorable little medallions I knew that I wanted to try to do a fried goat cheese side dish. Besides of course eating them on salads, sandwiches, and delicious pizza. Since I don't have any balsamic in my kitchen (which probably needs to be remedied) I decided to try some warm cherry preserves as a substitute. Whoa y'all. Whoa. This added a completely new dimension to the goat cheese and I highly recommend trying it.

While perusing recipes I found that fried goat cheese could be used in a wide variety of salad recipes as a topper. I decided to just enjoy mine as an appetizer sort of meal, with grapes and a spinach, fontina and garlic chicken sausage (also found at Trader Joe's). And, if you can't find single serving medallions, don't fret. You could just buy a log of goat cheese, they usually are 8 ounces, and slice it into 8 medallions. The tips I learned for slicing is to put the log in the freezer for 15 minutes prior to slicing, then wipe the knife clean in between each slice.

Fried Goat Cheese with Cherry Preserves serves one
2- 1 ounce goat cheese medallions
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon bread crumbs
1 egg
A dash of dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon cherry preserves

Prepare a drudging station by placing the flour in one bowl, the egg, whisked, into a second bowl, and the bread crumbs and spices in a third bowl.

Place a small amount of olive oil in a pan and put over medium heat while drudging the cheese. Make the thickness of the cheese medallions as uniform as possible. They might crumble a bit, but that's ok, just form them back together. Place them first in the flour for an even coating, then into the egg, then into the bread crumb mixture. Then put them in the hot pan for roughly 2 to 3 minutes, flipping once.

Once they are brown and crispy on each side place them on a plate. Take a spoonful of the cherry preserve, roughly a tablespoon, and place it in the still warm pan. Once it's warm it will be much thinner, drizzle it over the fried goat cheese. Serve as an appetizer, or as a side dish.

As a side note, you could also probably try to use less drudging ingredients if only cooking for one. I had a lot of it left after drudging both medallions. The amounts listed would probably be better for 4, or maybe even 6, medallions.

XO

.probably one of my favorite foods.

I love stuffed mushrooms. Love them. When they're done well. This is interesting to me because up until I was about 21 I HATED them. With a fiery passion. If anything had mushroom at all in it, I hated it. Over the last few years though the little fungi have grown on me.

For dinner tonight I combined two of my favorite things, stuffed mushrooms and goat cheese. And yes it is as fabulous as it sounds. I kept everything else pretty simple. I think next time I will add a little something to the cheese mixture. Bacon, chopped nuts, and/or breadcrumbs were all on my list of ideas. I also baked some more squash to go with the mushrooms, but this time without any breading. I just added a small dollop of the stuffing I used for the mushrooms (as I had a bit leftover). Both the mushrooms and the squash were delicious, and fairly filling, but I will say they are probably not best together as a dinner. I had to eat some peanut butter and crackers 30 minutes later for some protein! I think both or either would be great with a pork chop.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms serves 1-2
8 baby bella mushrooms
3 ounces goat cheese
1 clove of garlic
2 teaspoons olive oil
salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

With a damp rag or paper towel, gently wipe the dirt off the mushrooms. Take the stems out. Finely chop about half of the stems, place in a bowl. Mince the garlic, add to the bowl. Add the goat cheese and olive oil. Combine the ingredients in the bowl. Spoon a small amount of cheese mixture into the cavity of each mushroom cap. Sprinkle with salt.

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, place the mushrooms on the sheet, spray the tops of the mushrooms with the cooking spray. Cook for 20-25 minutes.

So good! My pictures didn't turn out great but I am super excited about something. Did you notice?! A new plate! Yes, I get excited over things like that. Haha.

XO