Butternut Squash Soup

Its soup season people - come on in and warm up!

1/2 cup small diced vidalia onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup peeled, chopped apple (Macintosh is a good one or Granny Smith)
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 pound peeled, diced potatoes (use red potatoes)
1 pound peeled, seeded, diced butternut squash
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1 cup fat free milk or soy milk
salt and pepper

1. Saute onion in olive oil until very soft and translucent. Add apple, thyme, nutmeg, ginger, and cook 3-4 minutes more.
2. Add broth, potato, squash and bring to a simmer and cook until vegetables are very soft (approx. 25 minutes). Season with salt and pepper.
3. Remove from heat and blend in pot with hand immersion blender (or cool slightly and use regular blender - but be careful you can get some killer burns with the regular blender).
4. Stir in milk, reheat if necessary but do not boil.

Serve topped with some pinenuts (pignola nuts) and a grating of Romano cheese and a nice crusty loaf of bread for cleaning up the bowl :)

November Lix Fix

Flavors are in for the JP Licks November Lix Fix! I am pretty excited for the Factor X yogurt flavor - Cranberry Blood Orange :)

Pumpkin Custard
Wild Turkey Bourbon (this doesn't seem like a good idea to me! ahahaha)
Carrot Cake
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Sugar Free Vanilla
Peanut butter Ripple (YES PLEASE!!! and my obsession with peanut butter continues)
Cranberry Orange Sorbet
Pumpkin Lactose Free
Vermont Maple Low Fat Yogurt
Triple Berry Sorbet

The new toppings: Dried cranberries, frosted animal cookies or cheesecake bites

You had better make a few laps around the outdoor mall while eating your Licks treat this month :)

Hey there cupcake

If you are looking for a yum-tastic treat for your November gatherings try these Pumpkin cupcakes with Maple-cream cheese frosting. Another NYC-Ivy discovery, the recipe itself needs to be credited to Ina Garten, but delicious these puppies are! You could make a substitution or two for some healthier attributes like using grapeola instead of vegetable oil for fish-free omega-3s, and fat free cream cheese in the frosting but I would for sure still use real butter as it is much better for you then margarine.

Makes 10 cupcakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup canned pumpkin purée (8 ounces), not pie filling
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar,
1/2 cup vegetable oil
¼ teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup maple syrup
Maple Frosting (recipe follows)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped Heath bars, for serving (2 1.4-ounce bars)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Into a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin purée, granulated sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla and vegetable oil. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined.
3. Divide the batter among the prepared tins and bake for 20 min, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely.
4. Spread the cupcakes with the Maple Frosting and sprinkle with the chopped toffee bits.

Maple Frosting
6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon Maple extract
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the cream cheese and butter on low speed until smooth. Stir in the maple flavoring , maple syrup and vanilla extract.
2. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth.

We've been douped!

Was anyone else aware that Ben & Jerry's Ice cream is no longer allowed to pat themselves on the back with an 'All Natural' claim? You may remember that Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield no longer own the business which creates such sought after ice cream pints, they sold out to Unilever, a British-Dutch conglomerate in 2000. In 2010 though, a public advocacy group urged Unilever to remove the 'all natural' wording from its label, on the grounds that the Ben & Jerry's ice cream was no longer 'all natural' due to the appearance of corn syrup, alkalized cocoa power and other modified ingredients. Unilever did remove the wording from Ben & Jerry's labels, but even an avid consumer like myself did not physically notice the words' removal on a pint container (as is shown between the two different photos of labels) - I had to come across it in some literature.

I do feel slightly upset upon learning this, not because I am upset that the ice cream is no longer all natural, more because I did not notice when this change happened which was probably at least 12 months ago! To me this is much like how companies have been making containers smaller and charging the same price for the item - the change to the Ben & Jerry's label took quite some time for consumers to catch on. You might have realized the the label looked different but could not overtly describe why. I do think that now that Ben & Jerry's is no longer the same quality it started out as, they should drop the price or leave it the same and sell it in quart sized containers. Who wants to pay full price for a pho-natural ice cream anyway!

Pie time!

Well we have all heard the phrase "as American as apple pie" and hopefully I am not ruining to many lives when I remind people that apple pie is not an 'American' invented item, similar to how the French Fry is not actually French, anyway, I digress. I tasted my first apple pie of the season on Martha's vineyard, and it was buried in quality and flavor by the blueberry-peach pie that was also served. Disappointed, I thought that perhaps this was not going to be a good apple pie season, much like the weather this fall has drown us with rain and the summer failed to scorch us with heat (for those of you who don't know - I LOOOOOOVE the heat :) ). But Ivy came to visit from NYC two weekends ago and revived my spirits, alright I admit it, revived my faith in bakers that apple pie this fall will definitely be delicious.

Her homemade pie was, in fact, the best apple pie I can remember. It actually looked as though she has hand placed the layers of apple inside it (and if she did this I will take her to Butler Hospital on her next visit to have her head examined). The crust (which she thanked the infamous Martha Stewart for) was flaky, buttery, semi-sweet but yet a perfect compliment to its apple insides. She graciously has allowed me to post her recipe - and you ought to give this sucker a try, or, if you can find her, knock on her NYC door, and I bet she will bake one just for you!

Pie Crust- courtesy of Martha Stewart

Makes 1 double crust 9 inch pie (my apple pie recipe only uses one so you can make 2 pies)

2 Cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt12 TB (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter
3 TB margarine or shortening3 TB sugar (can omit this if making a savory pie, this addition is not part of the Martha recipe)
1/4 Cup ice water

1. In a large bowl sift the flour and salt. cut the chilled butter and margarine/shortening add into the flour and shortening add sugar and with a pastry cutter or paddle attachment on mixer mix until the resembles coarse meal.
2. Add ice water little by little till it forms a ball. Don't over handle
3. wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hr. When ready to use again don’t over handle and keep the mixture as cool as possible

German Apple Pie (for 1 pie, so double if doing above pie crust recipe)

6-8 granny smith apples
1/2cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Peel, quarter and slice apples thin and set aside, sprinkle w lemon to keep from turning brown
3. Combine apples sugar and sour cream. Sprinkle 2tbsps bread crumbs or matzo meal on the bottom of the pie shell to prevent it from becoming mushy.
4. Place apple mixture into the shell. In another bowl combine brown sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon, first w/fork then with fingers until crumbly.
5. Sprinkle over pie. Put a strip of tinfoil around the fluted edge of the pie shell to prevent over browning. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 20min at 425, then reduce heat to 375 and back for 30 min or longer.

Stoner Food

On my first excursion ever to an island so close to the coastline of my beantown home front, I discovered a fabulously enticing treat at a local farmers' market. The treat? Stoner Food. A delectable, crave-worthy treat made of - our you ready for this? - a pretzel rod dipped in caramel, then dipped in dark chocolate, then sprinkled with crushed heath bar and a few granules of sea salt. Whoa nelle! You can find this treat on Martha's Vineyard from the local maker, New Moon Magick Enchanted Chocolates, at 4 Chapman Ave in Oak Bluffs or you can go to the website and order all their treats online! New Moon makes all their chocolates from high-high (no pun intended) quality 70% cacao. Hooray! Home-made treats made from high quality ingredients in small batches so that everything is fresh and fabulous. If it was a requirement that to eat Stoner food you had to be a pot head, I can't lie - I just might take up smoking - it was that fanfreakintastic!

I might just attempt to make it myself :)

Tailgating season is upon us! Try a new twist on a dip for veggies or pita chips :)

Spicy White bean dip (6 – ¼ cup servings)
•2 cloves garlic
•15 oz can cannelloni beans (liquid reserved)
•1 tablespoon olive oil
•salt & ground black pepper
•1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or paprika
•¼ teaspoon dried thyme
•1 tablespoon lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth.