Cooking with Karen (November 2017)

A couple of months ago I shared that I’m back into cooking and plan to share my favorite discoveries on the blog. So far, I’m doing that monthly at the beginning of each month.

None of these recipes are mine, though I tend to tweak every recipe I make. The pictures are mine and I’ll link to the original recipe to give the blogger or chef credit. Try the original recipe or tweak to your delight.  Just click on the recipe name or picture to see the original recipe. 

Here are the recipes I really enjoyed this month (and remembered to snap a picture).

Baked Cranberry Sauce

In Memorial…Recipe by Sharon123

Baked Cranberry Sauce | Future ExpatBaked Cranberry Sauce | Future Expat

It was better cold the next day than warm from the oven in my opinion, but Sharon liked it both ways.

My Review:

5 stars …Very tasty cranberry sauce. And so easy. I’ve never made it from scratch before but was happy with the results once cooled overnight. Wasn’t a fan of it warm. Made for Sharon’s Cook-a-thon.

Cranberry and Brie Grilled Cheese

In Memorial…Recipe by Sharon123

Cranberry and Brie Grilled Cheese | Future Expat

I used the baked cranberry above to make this grilled cheese.

My Review:

4 stars…I tried this 3 times just to be sure what I thought. First time I subbed fig spread for the cranberry sauce. 2nd time I used freshly baked (warm cranberry sauce). The final time I used cooled overnight homemade cranberry sauce (Sharon’s recipe) but switched the cheese to Monterey Jack. I definitely liked it best the 3rd time. I guess the brie cheese just didn’t work for me for some reason as a grilled cheese. Also used olive oil instead of butter each time…that’s just the way I always make grilled cheese.

Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup

by Mikekey

Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup | Future Expat

The roasted skins weren’t part of the recipe…but I though they looked great and since I used Delicata Squash with edible skins, I added them in at the end.

My Review:

4 stars…So this soup is really tasty and the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because I found the cumin overpowered the other flavors. I expected this to have a strong coconut milk and squash flavor, and was excited to add the curry powder. But what I mostly tasted was cumin and onion. Which was great, but not what I was expecting. The only changes I made when cooking was I left out the garam masala (didn’t have any) and thickened it up a bit after using the stick blender buy adding about a tsp of corn starch. I also used Delicata squash, which has edible skin, so I roasted the skin after taking out as much pulp as I could while the soup simmered in the last step…then added it it to the finished soup. And highly recommend the thyme on top of the soup. Very tasty soup and looking forward to leftovers!