White Wine Spaghetti Squash

This weekend I decided I wanted to make a completely original dish. No Pinterest inspiration, no cookbooks, just me. Some people may be intimidated, but I actually really like the challenge. Of course you bring whatever experience you have to the table, but you still have the chance to make something AMAZING and completely yours! What more inspiration is needed?

All I knew going into this was that I wanted to use this extra spaghetti squash that we had.

As I looked through our fridge, an idea started to form. I saw the extra mushrooms and bell pepper from the week's salads, the wild green onion that grows in our yard, the Bota Box that only had a glass or two left of Chardonnay. I don't know about you, but I really like adding alcohols to my dishes. It just seems to add an extra level. So much flavor and so many options! We served this on the side with some Tilapia seasoned similarly, but this would be delicious as a main dish too.


White Wine Spaghetti Squash
1 small spaghetti squash
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 bell pepper, diced
4 oz. mushrooms (about half a package), sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon basil
1 Tablespoon Morton's Natures Seasons
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup dry white wine (I used Chardonnay)
3 green onions, chopped

1. Poke spaghetti squash several times. Put in a greased shallow pan and bake at 375 for 1 hour. Make sure to set it aside for at least 10 minutes before touching it again. It will be really hot!

2. Meanwhile, put wine in a small pot over med-high heat and cook until reduced by half its volume.

3. In a separate pot, heat oil over med-high heat. Add onion and pepper, and cook until starting to soften. You don't want these soft yet because they will still be cooking for a while.

4. Add mushrooms to pot with onion and pepper, and stir.

5. Slice spaghetti squash in half. Scoop out seeds. Take a fork and scrape out the insides. It should look like spaghetti. Add to the pot of veggies.

6. Add in basil, Nature's Seasons, garlic, and green onion. Mix to combine.

7. Pour in the reduced wine, increase heat to high and cook until almost all excess moisture has evaporated.

8. Serve and enjoy!

Serves 2-3.

This Pork is the Schnitzel

I thought I'd have an entry to welcome you to the blog and explain what I hoped to accomplish, but instead I will just start. Please have patience while I find my voice.

AJ and I recently came up with a goal - to make food from the cuisine of each country in the world. This is quite the undertaking, but we aren't giving ourselves a time limit, so it's more of an on-going bucket list item.

I don't know if you've ever seen The Amazing Race, but we love it. These teams of friends, siblings, or couples travel all over the world and perform tasks that in some way relate to their current location. We weren't sure how to decide which country's cuisine we wanted to make, so we decided - why not follow The Amazing Race and make food from the country they would be in that week? And a wonderful tradition was born.

This past week, the participants in The Amazing Race travelled to Dresden, Germany. It just so happens that about four years ago, I spent a semester studying in Austria. In case you didn't know, Austria and Germany share a lot of similarities in their cuisine. One of the first things I think of when it comes to German food is Wienerschnitzel. This actually just translates as Viennese schnitzel, which is traditionally a cut of veal pounded until it's really thin, then battered and fried. I don't personally try to eat much veal, so we opted for a safer pork option, called Schweineschnitzel. Because you can't seem to get enough fried food in German cuisine, we also had a side of potato pancakes, or "kartoffelpuffer."

Which brings us to the important part, and the whole reason for this blog - the food. Your arteries couldn't be more excited.

Schweineschnitzel (pork schnitzel in the Viennese style)

Pork tenderloins (I made 8, but we had company and wanted leftovers)

Flour

2 eggs

Bread crumbs

Salt, pepper

Oil and butter for frying

1. Pound your pork tenderloins with a meat tenderizer. If you have some other hammer-like object, you can use that instead. Really take your anger out on the meat. You want the meat to get as thin as possible. It's surprising how much bigger the tenderloins will get.

2. Set up your assembly line. I used plates rather than bowls because the meat got so big! Fill one plate with flour. In a bowl, beat the two eggs. In the last plate, cover with bread crumbs. Add a little salt and pepper for additional taste.

3. In a skillet over medium heat, heat up vegetable oil and butter. You want about a 50/50 mix and to cover your pan with enough excess that the meat can "float" rather than sit on the bottom of your pan.

4. Once the oil is heated, take one pork piece and dip it in the flour. Remove any clumps. Dip in egg to cover, then immediately in the bread crumbs. Put in your skillet and cook until done - about 5-7 minutes on each side. Repeat for each of your meat pieces.

You can also use this recipe for pretty much any meat (or non-meat).