Butternut Squash and Mozzarella Salad

Today’s lunch was inspired by a lovely salad I had at the fabulous La Piazza Ristorante Italiano at The Grove.

The salad is sweet, salty and Italian, so pretty much a combination of all of my favorite things!

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 12 oz butternut squash
• 1 tbsp Enzo Meyer Lemon Olive Oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 cup toasted walnut pieces
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 oz mozzarella cheese balls

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees, then prepare the butternut squash.

I am fortunate enough to live within walking distance to Trader Joes (which is pretty apparent in all of my ingredient shots!) so I purchased pre-cut ready-to-go butternut squash cubes.  If you aren’t so fortunate (holler to my Oklahoma peeps!) just buy a couple of medium size squash and cube them yourself. Place them on a baking sheet (I like to line with foil bc I HATE to do dishes and it prevents them from sticking to the baking sheet so easier clean up!)

Drizzle the Enzo olive oil over the top.

Next, sprinkle with salt, pepper and cinnamon.

Then on to my favorite part… BROWN SUGAR!  I feel that everything in life would be better if it had a little brown sugar involved!

Now the squash is ready to go in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Toss them about half way through.

While the squash is roasting prepare the balsamic reduction for drizzling over all of this yummy salad! Heat a skillet over medium-high heat then add 1 cup of balsamic vinegar to the skillet, followed by 2 crushed garlic cloves. Bring it to a boil then lower the temperature and allow it to reduce by half.

Next, toast the walnuts.

Once again, I bought already chopped walnut pieces from Trader Joes, but if you have whole walnuts just give them a nice chop and you’re ready to go!

Throw these on some foil on a baking sheet and in to the oven for 3-4 minutes, these little babies toast up quick in the 400 degree oven!

Once the squash and walnuts are out of the oven and the balsamic is reduced it’s time to put it all together. Use tongs to move the squash on to a plate in a nice little pile, then top each pile of squash with 4-5 mozzarella balls, next sprinkle a few toasted walnuts on top, then it’s time for that yummy, syrup-y, balsamic reduction goodness to get drizzled all on top!  Your plate should end up looking something like this ↓

But are those two plates I see?!??!

Yes those are two plates of deliciousness you see!  So if you are thinking back to yesterdays blog and thought “didn’t she say she experimented with cooking at lunch because she was only cooking for herself” why yes, yes I did say that so now I guess I’m a liar, but all in good reason!!

Time to introduce my best friend Erin, she’s the kind of girl who will drink a case of bud light with you and enjoy an enormous burrito all while wearing 5-inch heels and approximately 68 pieces of jewelry, needless to say she is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  Well I had the fortune of feeding her lunch today after she arrived home early from a work trip and had the day off! Watch as she intently stares at her food, raising her fork in anticipation of that first magical bite:

And here she goes… time to dig in!

Mmm delicious!  Definitely recommend this dish for a great appetizer or lunch salad, or I was thinking I might skewer a ball of mozzarella between two pieces of the roasted butternut squash and drizzle with the balsamic reduction for cocktail parties! Who wants to come to my next cocktail party now, huh? Yeah I know you do

♣ Vegetarian Option: This recipe is vegetarian.

♦ Gluten Free Option: This recipe is gluten-free.

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

How Happy Are You??

How happy are you?? Wouldn’t you like to know??  Oh you think you already know?  Well what if I were to tell you that there were a test you could take just to find out how happy you really are! A test that asks questions such as: “If you were keeping score in life, would you consider yourself: behind, even, somewhat ahead, ahead or far ahead?” Well it probably depends on the day buddy!  But today my “Authentic Happiness Inventory” is at a 3.58… out of 5, sounds a little mediocre if you ask me.. does this look like someone at a 3.58 of happiness??

Ok well I do have to admit that anytime I’m surrounded by barrels of wine my happiness rating probably shoots up to a 5 but apparently even at a 3.58 I ranked as high or higher than 77% of women and 81% of my age group… so either 26-year-old women are really depressed or this questionnaire kind of sucks but either way it’s a fun little test to either make you feel better about life or make you fall into a deep depression finding out that your happiness is at a 1 :-/ but I’m sure none of my marvelous, happy, positive little leopard followers will be at a 1, I mean how could you be unhappy after reading my super amazing blog, hurry, go take it now while the blog is fresh in your head and you’re overwhelmed with happiness!

Ok, now that we’ve got that over with, it doesn’t stop there, oh no, there are many lovely tests that accompany how happy you are including a compassionate love scale, a positive and negative affects scale, a gratitude scale and my personal favorite the grit scale, a measurement of  the character strength of perseverance… taking “getting down to the nitty-gritty” to a whole new level!  There are over a dozen of these fun little tests on the ever appropriately named website: www.authentichappiness.com! Feel free to take one, two or ten depending on how bored you are (but if you’re bored that counts against you on the happiness scale so maybe stick with one or two!)

Photo by my brothers beautiful and talented girlfriend Liz Ragland

Creamy Orzo with Roasted Vegetables

SOOOOO excited to share my first cooking post on the little leopard book! Lunch is a time where I like to experiment for two reasons:

1. I never plan what I’m going to have for lunch because every day is different in my life and I don’t know where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing so  therefore when I’m home and have time to cook lunch I just use what’s already in my kitchen to make instead of shopping specifically for the meal.
2. I’m only cooking for myself at lunch so if it sucks I’m the only one that suffers haha! But on the other side if it’s awesome I get to eat it all myself

This morning I had my girl Rachael Ray on and she was making a lemon risotto on 30 Minute Meals and I love myself a good risotto, so I took to my cabinets to see what I could find to make my own version of Rachael’s yummy little dish! As I got looking through my cabinets I saw that Trader Joes bag of Orzo staring me in the face.

I’ve never cooked with orzo but as I adventure into new food frontiers I find myself grabbing 2 or 3 items I’ve never cooked with before each time I go to the store and incorporating them into my new dishes. So today became project Creamy Orzo, basically an Orzo Risotto of sorts. So here we go!

Ingredients (serves 2- as meal, 4- as side dish)

• 2 red onions (1 chopped, 1 sliced)
• 1 eggplant
• 1 red bell pepper (quartered)
• 1 green bell pepper (quartered)
• 2 tbsp olive oil (separated)
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 6 garlic cloves, (2 minced, 4 whole)
• 2 cups orzo
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup parmesan
• 1/4 cup fresh basil (chopped)

Begin by slicing one red onion and both bell peppers.  Cut the eggplant in half.  Arrange the vegetables with 4 garlic cloves on a baking sheet, then drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper.

Next, place the vegetables in the oven at 350° for 30 minutes while preparing the orzo.

Begin preparing the orzo by bringing 4 cups of chicken stock to a boil.

While the stock is heating up place 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet then add the chopped onion and minced garlic.

Cook for 1-2 minutes then add the orzo, cook for 1 minute then begin adding the chicken stock 1/2 cup at a time.

Every time the orzo starts to look dry add another 1/2 cup of stock until all of the stock has been used and the orzo is soft and creamy! This should be about a 15 minute process.

Next, add the parmesan cheese and mix into melty goodness!

Then remove the vegetables from the oven, chop the bell peppers, onion and garlic. Simply scoop the inside of the eggplant out and add them all to the orzo along with the fresh basil.

This dish could be served as a vegetarian entree or side dish for Chicken Parmesan or Italian Crusted Pork Tenderloin!

The orzo is creamy and delicious on it’s own, but the addition of flavorful roasted vegetables makes it oh-so-scrumptious!

♣ Vegetarian Option: Substitute chicken stock with vegetable broth.

♦ Gluten Free Option: Substitute orzo with quinoa.

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

No Reservations… No Kidding!

As someone who one day hopes to call herself a “Food Network Star”, I definitely have to side with my girls Paula Deen and Rachael Ray, as well as my Dads favorite, Guy Fieri when it comes to the words of “No Reservations” host Anthony Bourdain in this smackdown of the foodies! I mean, does this look like “the worst, most dangerous person to America”???

Ok so there’s a good chance that she threw that Turkey in the deep fryer about 1.5 seconds after this picture was taken, but I’m pretty sure there are a lot more dangerous people out there than this sweet little grandma!!!  Yes, Paula Deen likes to fry things and use excessive amounts of butter and sugar, but if people are stupid enough to eat this way every day, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if they died an early death of diabetes and obesity!  Ok, maybe that was a little harsh, but I feel the same way about poor eating habits and unhealthy lifestyles as I do about cigarette smoking.  With all of the information we have at our fingertips these days there is no reason why you shouldn’t KNOW better and therefore DO better for yourself and your families!  Is Paula Deen influencing unhealthy ways to prepare food? Sure, but I definitely wouldn’t call her “America’s Most Wanted”.

And on to Rachael Ray, and I quote Mr Bourdain “”Does she even cook anymore? I don’t know why she bothers. I feel bad that she still feels compelled to cook.” Um, not sure what your bank statement is looking like these days Anthony, but Miss Ray’s is coming in at around $60 million, so for someone who made her money from cooking, I would say that she must be doing something right!!! 

Although Guy may not be pulling in $60 million dollars like Miss Ray…. YET… he is well on his way there! With multiple shows, books, restaurants and even his own knife brand, I would definitely call Guy a household name these days! But of course our good ol pal Anthony had no reservations for Mr Fieri, saying “”I look at Guy Fieri and I just think, ‘Jesus, I’m glad that’s not me.’ You work that hard and there’s not a single show of yours that you’d want to sit down and say, ‘Hey, I made that last week. Look at that camera work. It’s really good, huh?’ I’m proud of what I do.” Well I guess the rest of America does not agree with you, Guy’s signature show “Diners, Drive Ins and Dives” more than doubled the number of viewers and ratings of your show “No Reservations” last season. Who’s laughing now Bourdain?? This Guy↓

Needless to say, after his little rant on my peeps I now have no reservations to watch anything Anthony Bourdain!

The Great Moose Hunt of 2011

No, I’m not talking about the hunting where you use big guns and wear tacky mismatched camouflage pants with bright orange vests, I’m talking about setting out on an adventure with the family into the great outdoors of Colorado just to spot one of the cute, furry critters!

One week ago I was helping my brother move into his new digs in Colorado Springs when my family decided we would go for an adventure up Pikes Peak, I began to see signs everywhere for deer crossings and big foot crossings.

Then Mom and I began to make friends with these little furry fellas, lets just call them Chip and Dale

I was now on a mission to really make myself one with the outdoors and take this time to see as many animals in their  natural habitat as possible. (The closest I get to this in LA are the  little gophers that come out to peak at me while I’m in downward facing dog during yoga at Runyon Canyon!)  Anyway, I digress, so back to my mission: animals! But not just any animals, I was on a Moose hunting mission! Don’t ask me why, I have no idea, I just really felt the need to see a moose.  They’re furry, they have antlers, this one looks like it’s smiling at me…

You get the appeal, right? Kind of?  Well I don’t care, it’s my moose hunt mission and I’ll moose mission if I want to Needless to say I spent 4 days in Colorado and no Moose sightings :-/ I went home sad, but not defeated, oh no because these days we have the wonderful, amazing, majestical… GOOGLE! With three magical words: MOOSE IN COLORADO, I find a link that may fulfill my moose hunt mission! State Forest State Park (why the double state in the name? Is that really necessary?) Once again, that’s besides the point, claimed to be “the moose viewing capital of Colorado, with over 600 moose to be observed year-round” I’ve found my spot! 

Stayed tuned for my next trip to Colorado and to the Moose viewing capital… I will not rest until I  see those furry little antlers in person and complete my moose hunt mission!