Hi, Vampire Gran here. I'm sorry I haven't posted here in Vampire Gran's Kitchen for a few months. Other interests have dragged me away, as I am sure happens to all of you from time to time. I'm back for the moment and ready to share some stories of what has kept me away. Hopefully they will be of some interest to someone out there. Let's get started, shall we?
The thing about seeing some of your blog readers in person on a regular basis is they can give you a hard time about not posting. Right, Cat and Robert H.? Yes, I am totally guilty of not keeping up with my self-professed passion of interest. I’m sorry. And I wish that I could tell you all about some amazing adventures of travel or winning the lottery or some such excitement, but there has been none of that. Well, there was a nice trip to the coast recently and I will write about that, but not today.
Truth is I have allowed other interests to tear me away from my beloved blog. For starters, I bought a new sewing machine. It even has a name! Anna. I did not name her, she came into my life already saddled with that moniker. She’s a Baby Lock brand and she is so sweet! Our old Singer needed some TLC and the cost of having that overhauled was about $50.00 less than a brand new machine, so, you do the math. Anyway, I’ve been having fun mending a ton of clothes around here and making some frocks for my Barbies. I’ve also been playing a lot of pool, getting ready to be on a 9 ball team with Katie starting tonight. I don’t want to make our team look bad by being a sucky player!
In January I taught a cooking class. My friend, Angel, is the volunteer co-ordinator at North West Ministries and she asked me to come and teach again. I taught a tofu class there this past November and it was a lot of fun. Last time I had a set curriculum complete with printed recipes for everyone and actually knew what I would be working with. Angel and I thought it would be fun to do a “black box” class. A black box test is what you get in culinary school. You don’t know what you will be cooking until you open the box and see what your ingredients are. Since there is a full food pantry at the church and you never know what will be there, we thought it might be helpful to the people who depend on that food to learn how to utilize it and make it tasty. Hence, the “Black Box” cooking class.
Fortunetly, Angel had a volunteer to help me all lined up. His name was Robert and he was awesome. Turns out he does personal cheffing so it really turned out to be the Patty and Robert show. He wasn’t very vocal, so I did all of the talking, but I turned the stir fry portion of the class over to him and we worked well together. Plus he was a whiz at keeping the kitchen spic and span as we worked!
A sweetheart of a guy came in and took pictures and a little video that I will share with you now.
It’s not the greatest video, but it’s something to share with you. I wish it had some music or narration so you could get a better idea of what we were making. Here are a bunch of still shots where I will attempt to describe what the class was like. I’ll share a recipe at the end of this post.
As I mentioned, there is a food pantry at the church for people in need and this is some of the pretty nice produce that was available the day I taught the "black box" class.
I'm adding olive oil to some peeled and cubed butternut squash in this shot. The photographer arrived a little late for the actual cubing of the squash. This student was fascinated with everything. She had never had butternut squash before was was ready to try it.The baking sheet was lined with foil. After adding olive oil, salt and pepper to the butternut squash, I spread it all out on the baking sheet to roast.Here I am starting to make a glaze for the squash. There is some soy sauce in the bowl and the photographer asked me to show the bowl for the picture. Not too exciting as I had not added the remaining ingredients yet.
Squeezing in some lime juice to the sauce. Fresh lime juice is better but we're using what we have on hand, remember?
Whisking it all together. There's my most curious student. Wish I could remember her name. She was pretty sweet and very enthusiastic.
He moved in for a close-up of the whisking action.
This is a really nice food pantry. They even had Portobello mushrooms! I marinade it with lots of garlic, olive oil, soy sauce and hot sauce.
We cooked this mushroom off in a frying pan. At home I would have used a grill pan or the barbecue. The class really was impressed with this simple, yet unusual for them, treat.
That's Robert, my volunteer assistant. Not sure what was up with the dark glasses. I'm pretty sure he could see what he was doing.
See, there really was a few more students besides my number one fan there.
I look a little confused in this shot. Getting ready to measure some rice.
Robert is on veggie chopping detail for his stir fry.
He was a lot more precise than I would have been!
I'm telling you, if you need emergency food assistance, contact NorthWest Ministries in Portland. Look how nice these vegetables are!
Let's get some onion in there.
Vampire Gran taking the squash out of the oven for a bit of a stir before adding the glaze.
Doing a little glazing action now
Still at the stove while students look on
Meanwhile, back at the prep table, Robert keeps cutting up the beautiful veggies
We're turning, we're glazing
Unfortunately, the photographer had to leave before our feast was ready, so there are no photos of the complete meal! Everyone sat down to a meal of grilled Portobello mushroom, vegetable stir fry over steamed rice, mixed green salad with a simple vinaigrette and sweet and spicy roasted glazed butternut squash. We did it all in a two-hour time slot, including clean up and consumption of the meal.
I love this squash recipe. I actually adapted it from a recipe that was on Vegan Good Things (you can click on her link over there on the right under BlogRoll). the original recipe was for Brussel sprouts which is fantastic, but I have found that this glaze works great with any vegetable.
SWEET AND SPICY BUTTERNUT SQUASH
1 Butternut Squash, peeled and cut into 1/2′ – 3/4′ cubes
olive oil
Kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper
In a large bowl, toss cubed squash in small amount of olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spread on foil lined baking sheet and place in a preheated 350 degree oven. Roast for about 20 minutes.
GLAZE
2 – 3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
juice of one lime
hot sauce to taste ( I usually free pour about 2 tablespoons)
Use the same bowl that you tossed the oil and squash in. Mix glaze. You are going to glaze the squash AFTER FIRST ROASTING IT FOR 20 MINUTES.
Remove squash from oven and toss in glaze. Spread glazed squash back onto the baking sheet, reserving some for drizzling before serving, and return to oven. Bake for another 15 minutes or until the squash is tender and caramelized.
That’s it. You are done and it is delicious.
Vampire Gran's Kitchen 