Butternut Cashew Corn Chowder

Cashew Fruit

I have been playing around with other people's recipes again. There was something similar on AOL and I messed with it. This is the result! A warm, wintery, yummy chowder! Hooray for immersion blenders!

1 large butternut squash
Olive oil
1 cup raw or dry-roasted cashews
2 cups frozen or canned corn
1/3 cup water
2 medium onions, chopped fine
2 stalks celery, chopped fine
2 carrots, peeled and chopped fine
1 garlic bulb, cloves peeled

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
4-5 cups chicken or vegetable stock

Cut the squash in half and scoop out seeds. Rub with olive oil and pour some in the holes. Put garlic cloves in holes and bake for an hour at 400 degrees. Meanwhile, chop onions, celery, and carrots and put in dutch oven with water, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Saute for 5 minutes or so and add stock. Simmer till vegetables are soft. Scoop out squash from the skin and put in dutch oven with garlic. Process cashews till they are a sort of paste/flour-y consistency. Add to dutch oven and puree ingredients with a hand blender. Mix corn with a little salt, pepper, and oil. Bake for 10 minutes at 325 (this step can be skipped and the corn can just be added to the soup). Add corn to soup and serve!

Sweet Walnut Poppyseed Dressing

1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/3 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons poppy seeds
 

5 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 garlic, minced & roasted 

Chop the walnuts and roast them with the garlic till sizzling (not black). Mix with olive oil while still hot. Then mix the rest of the ingredients together. I had to use a lot of honey to make this palatable for me, so basically just add as much as you need till it tastes good to you.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Cinnamon Chicken"

 I'm fairly certain there is no mention of cinnamon chicken in the actual Little House books, but for those of you who remember the TV show there was an episode where Nellie invites Almanzo Wilder to dinner (before he married Laura). Laura is so jealous that she offers to prepare Almanzo's favorite meal for Nellie because Nellie can't cook. Laura sabotages the meal by using cayenne pepper instead of cinnamon--you can imagine the result. I got this fabulously simple recipe from The Prairie Blog, which is now defunct.

1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 egg
2 tbsp. milk
2 chicken breasts
1/3 c. crushed corn flakes (or bread crumbs)
2 tbsp. oil

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, salt, cinnamon, turmeric, and pepper. Beat egg and milk. Coat chicken pieces with flour mix. Combine bread crumbs/cornflakes and remaining flour mixture. Dip chicken into egg and coat with bread crumbs/corn flakes. Arrange in a roasting pan. Sprinkle with oil, or just spray the top with oil (I use the self-fill spray cans). Bake until crisp and brown, about 40 minutes.