Vanilla Risotto with Butternut Squash

Ohhhh, yes. This dish is so comforting, so soothing and so toe-curlingly creamy that those who you serve it to will become your love slaves forever. My only caveat might involve the vanilla, only because I felt like it was a little lost behind the strong salty taste of the parmesan, but Tim said he tasted it and enjoyed the flav' so who am I to argue? One might also try roasting the squash instead of cooking it in the broth, thus bringing out the flavor more.

5 cups vegetable broth
1 large vanilla bean
3 cups cubed butternut squash
4 T butter
3/4 cup finely chopped white onion or 1 shallot
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/2 tsp salt
chives for garnish

Heat broth over medium heat and add squash. Keep this simmering over low while cooking. Add sliced open and scraped vanilla bean. Reduce to low-ish.
In another pan, melt two T butter over medium heat and add onion and cook about 3 minutes. Add rice and stir for a minute or so. Add wine and allow to absorb--about 3 minutes. Add broth 1/2 cup at a time until absorbed-stirring constantly, two minutes each until all broth is used and rice is cooked through, but not overcooked and mushy. Should take about 20 minutes.
Turn off heat and add parm, salt, remaining butter and cooked squash. Sprinkle with chives.

Brownies that will thrill you. (sang in the voice of Marvin Gaye)

I decided to make these when my awesome sister and my wonderfully weird and terrifically mischievous nephews came over this morning. Aiden and I made pretend soup together on the kitchen floor and used pretend ingredients that we had in our pockets. I don't remember all of the ingredients, but I know the recipe included pineapples, mustard, cheese, cheeseburgers, and ice cream and the result was somehow brownies. The best brownies in the world, mind you.
These brownies do not have the impressively bizarre ingredients that the pretend ones did (Aiden, you little sneaky elf, your imagination is so fun)
but I think they make up for it it by being really fricken tasty.

6 oz bittersweet chocolate
8 T butter
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 T cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp coffee
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Melt together and combine butter and chocolate and stir until smooth. Set aside to come to room temp. In another bowl, mix eggs, sugar, cocoa, vanilla, coffee and salt. Add choc/butter mix and combine until fully mixed. Carefully fold in flour. Bake in an ungreased metal 9x9 dish for 25-30 minutes or until crackly on top and a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Pappardelle with green beans and lemon parmesan sauce

Oh creamy pasta of my dreams. This recipe is awesome. The sauce is so wonderfully complex, with an undercurrent of lemon and that soothing creamy parmesan flavor that never lets us down. The original recipe calls for baby zucchini to be invited to the party, but zucchini is no friend of mine so I skipped it. I think the green beans are all the friends we need at this shindig.

1 8 oz package egg pasta, preferably pappardelle but whatever you can find
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 of a medium white onion, thinly sliced
8 oz green beans, cut in 1/2
2 tsp lemon zest
1 1/4 cup parmesan
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 T lemon juice

Cook pasta until just tender. When it's almost done, add green beans to cook for about a minute. Before draining, reserve 2 cups pasta liquid.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a big saute pan over medium heat and add onions and some salt and pepper. Cook for 8 minutes. Add lemon zest and cooked green beans and toss 1 minute.
Scrape contents of skillet over pasta. Add parmesan, cream, lemon juice and 1 cup cooking liquid. Place over medium heat and toss until sauce comes together, adding more pasta water if needed. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Potato Soup with Dill

This recipe is an old friend, always delicious and always easy to throw together. I love potato soup, but sometimes I get sick to death of the thick, cheezy, vein-clogging kind. That's when this bowl of tastiness comes along and wraps me in it's soothing potato-ie arms and tells me "Shhhhhh, just slirp."

2 carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 leek, white & light green parts only, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 lb russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 stick butter (once again, not exactly a diet recipe, just jog in place for a minute while chopping veggies to prep for the calories)
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup milk (or 1/2 & 1/2 if no one's looking)
2 T chopped dill

Cook veggies in butter over medium high heat in a soup pot of some sort for about 15 minutes. Add broth, 1 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste and bring to a simmer. Simmer, covered, about 10 minutes. Use a potato masher to smooch some of the veggies up, or add 1/2 of soup to a blender. Add milk, and heat back up. Stir in dill. If you have a bottle of fancy expensive olive oil collecting dust in your pantry, give 'er a drizzle as I did. You won't regret it. Eat and slirp.

If you prefer a thicker soup: when you are cooking the veggies in the butter, sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of flour over the butter coated veggies and continue as planned.