Pumpkin Cupcakes

Happy Halloween from Starting to Simmer!



Photo: John Kernick


I thought I'd share my recipe for Pumpkin Cupcakes that I got from Real Simple last year. It literally is real simple. Here we go...

Pesto Baked Chicken with Asparagus

I had half a jar of pesto sauce leftover from making some pasta salad a while back and was trying to figure out a way to use it other than just dumping it on pasta. (I had previously used the pesto to make a really yummy pesto and spinach pasta salad that I found on the food network website. It was a total hit at a bbq and I had to throw together a quick second batch when people gobbled up the first one.) Some quick googling led me to the idea of brushing the pesto onto chicken. Sounded simple and yummy enough! I decided to fancy it up but stuffing the chicken with asparagus and mozzarella, and made some sauteed spinach on the side.

Beef Ragu (aka Meat Sauce)

It was cool and rainy here for a change and I had the day off from work so I decided to make homemade meat sauce. (I fancied up the name to beef ragu for the title) 

Side note- yes it gets cold and cloudy and rainy here in San Diego. I know the California tourism ad's would lead you to think differently but its not true. When you live in a place for long enough your body adjusts to its climate (This is scientifically documented) So yes when the temperature is below 65 degrees it feels cold to me!

The recipe needs to simmer for 3 hours minimum, but it occurred to me that you could probably cook it in a slow cooker if you weren't able to wait around while it cooks down.

I love Rick Bayless

souce: epicurious.com

I just wanted to say how much I love Rick Bayless. He was on Top Chef Masters a few years back and I was completely inspired by his authentic Mexican cooking. Last year for my Birthday I got his Mexican Everyday Cookbook and I have LOVED everything that I've ever made from it. I suggest you go get this right now. I absolutely love Mexican but I usually tend or order things that are full of cheese and rice and not so healthy. Kevin and i have been trying to be healthier (on top of the fact that he is a crazy person who HATES cheese. Its weird. I know.) So I browsed through the cook book and I ended up making some beef fajitas with whole wheat tortillas (ok sooo i purchased the tortillas, I'm not that talented) With Rick's Mexican red rice, (substituted brown rice instead of white as the base and it turned out great) as well as some black beans that I doctored up using a couple of various bean recipes in the book. Voila healthy, cheese-less Mexican dinner!

Spaghetti Squash

This week I made Spaghetti Squash for the first time. It was really easy to make and did end up looking a lot like Spaghetti (when you cut the squash apart you can't tell at all and I was SURE that I would find some way to turn it into mush instead of strands) Lots of websites advocated using the squash in place of Spaghetti (which I tried out) but I really didn't like that. My favortie way to eat it was just baked with little brown sugar and butter, or with some salt and pepper when it was first roasted.