I made risotto.

One night of cooking class, and I feel as though I could be Julia Childs. I tested my hand at risotto tonight. I got the recipe from my friend who is always making something mouth-watering (and something that seems beyond complicated.) She gave it to me in January of this year. I am just now getting around to it. Better late than never, right?

Here is the recipe:

Butternut Squash Risotto
 

Ingredients

• 1 medium butternut squash
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 onion, minced
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 4-5 cups hot chicken stock
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cut squash in half longways. Place skin side down on baking sheet. Sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar. Roast in oven at 400 for approx 40 minutes. Cool slightly; scoop out of skin, and mash. Need 2 cups for the recipe.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook and stir for 2 minutes until the onion begins to soften, then stir in the rice. Continue cooking and stirring until the rice is glossy from the butter, and the onion begins to brown on the edges, about 5 minutes more.
3. Pour in the white wine; cook, stirring constantly, until it has evaporated. Stir in the mashed squash and 1/3 of the hot chicken stock; reduce heat to medium. Cook and stir until the chicken stock has been absorbed by the rice, 5 to 7 minutes. Add half of the remaining chicken stock, and continue stirring until it has been absorbed. Finally, pour in the remaining stock, and continue stirring until the risotto is creamy. Finish by stirring in the Parmesan cheese, and seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.

My adjustments? Very minimal. I ended up cooking the squash for about ten minutes longer to get them fully cooked. I also added a touch of half and half (my friend had added some whipping cream) to get an even creamier texture. I probably stirred for a good thirty minutes to get it to the right consistency. Honestly, I was worried it was going to be pumpkin soup for awhile, but it did thicken nicely.

Mmmm. Creamy and squashy. Don't YOU want some?

The verdict? VERY GOOD. I liked it. I also probably had three glasses of wine while I cooked (stirring is thirsty business!)

I would definitely make it again. Fall loveliness in a skillet.

Lame Appetizer...but easy and good.

I have been in the process of packing up my belongings. Yes, again. In so doing, I have cooked very little this summer. A last-minute invitation to a barbecue meant I had to bring a snack. Ordinarily, I use these times to shine, "fun-food" being the kind I do best. Sadly, I have neither time, ambition nor a fully stocked kitchen to create such a fun masterpiece.

Instead, I prepared an easy dip. You spread a brick of cream cheese in the bottom of a bowl (or whatever container you might have on hand. A pie plate will work well too.) You top that cream cheese with a pepper jelly, anything sweet or spicy will do. Serve with some Triscuit crackers and you're all set.

Easy. No effort involved. Good because you don't have to turn your stove on.

White Peach Sangria...kinda.

Faced with the prospect of bringing something to a BBQ that would quench thirsts in a creative way, I turned to my good pal, allrecipes.com. This was my selection:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/White-Peach-Sangria/Detail.aspx

I used sauvignon blanc for my base. Due to time constraints and frankly, the fact that I was feeling lazy, I couldn't find peach vodka. Therefore, I went with passion fruit vodka. I substituted a bag of frozen raspberries for the grapes because I like raspberries better. Then I added four fresh white peaches and almost an entire bag of frozen peaches chopped up. Next time, I might go with some mango too, especially if I am using the passion fruit vodka.

I tripled the recipe, but didn't add quite as much sugar (I used two cups, rather than the two and a quarter cups.) Next time, I would go even lighter on the sugar. I ended up splashing club soda on the top (and later mixing it with champagne, but that's neither here nor there) to make it a little bit less sweet.

Here is the result:

Also, this kind of pitcher does NOT travel well. I speak from someone who had to clean out a certain someone's car the next day due to a tragic tipping on the way to the party. Ooops.

My panna cotta, don't want none unless you got buns, hun...

Oh yes. I made panna cotta.

A couple of my coworkers and I started a cooking club. Sadly, it is likely that although we had three very successful dinners, our group will likely not be continuing on. One of our members is moving to California and the other is moving to the 'burbs.

Guess I'll have to go back to experimenting for J. It's okay, I think he enjoys being my guinea pig.

In any event, our probably final cooking night was Italian-themed. There was bruschetta, of course. For the main course, we enjoyed shrimp alfredo. And I, knowing that tiramisu would be costly and complicated, elected for panna cotta, an Italian custard.

The result? Very good. It was almost suspiciously easy, but it turned out great. I followed this recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Panna-Cotta/Detail.aspx with no modifications, save for a little slip during the measurement of vanilla. Rather than ramekins, I used martini glasses for a cute touch.

I topped the panna cotta with homemade hot fudge sauce, via allrecipes.com yet again: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Hot-Fudge-Sauce/Detail.aspx and garnished with fresh raspberries.

Voila!

(P.S. We also theme our drinking. The bubbles are prosecco, naturally. YUM.)