Roasted Acorn Squash Pasta

I feel like I am back to where I started with the blog. No pictures, just a recipe. Sadly I have been so occupied with Sweet Cheeks, that not only has the blogging suffered, my cooking has gotten pretty basic and lax.

However, tonight Joel told me it was the best pasta he had ever had and “this is a recipe that I would tell you to remember how you made it.” And it reminded me of why I started my blog to begin with.

Luckily business has been great and growing, but because of that, I find it unlikely I will get regular at this for quite some time. However, until then…


1 acorn squash (halved and cleaned of seeds)
½ onion
½ stick butter
¼ c olive oil
½ cup dry white wine
¼ pine nuts
4-6 cloves of garlic sliced thin
1 lb pasta

I brushed olive oil on the squash, stuck them in a 425 degree oven cut side up and roasted for about 25 minutes (or until tender and a bit brown). Once squash is down, set aside to cool.

Once cool cut up squash into about 1inch cubes. Set aside.

Heat olive oil and butter and add onions and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent and add wine. Cook additional 2-3 minutes. In a oven safe dish combine onion and squash and put back into a 425 oven. Meanwhile, start water for pasta and salt well.

Let squash mixture cook for about 10-15 minutes or until golden and brown on top. Put pine nuts in and set timer for 5 minutes and turn oven off.

Once past is done add about ½ of the pasta water to squash mixture, drain pasta and toss mixture and past and sprinkle nuts on top.


Enjoy

Kale Soup

I made this yesterday for lunch. I was having competing desires for a warm meal and something leafy and bright. This was my odd compromise. It hit the spot though and hubby loved it that night. Today I pulled it out. It is a gloomy day with snow threatening us again. I am a great lover of snow, but just this weekend it was brilliant and beautiful and I started on yard work and mentally made the leap to spring. Sigh. So with the new gloom in the air I had this for lunch but added a dollop of greek yogurt. Double yum. Plus, it is low cal, fast and cheap. Trifecta!


½ onion sliced
½ bag chopped kale (or about 3 cups??)
2 cartons of beef stock (could used veggie, chicken, or broth if you prefer)
1 can chick peas
2 tbs sweet curry
1 tbs olive oil.


Heat olive oil, sauté the onions until soft. Add stock, kale and chickpeas and bring to simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Add curry and any salt you want. Viola!

The Earth, Oprah, and Meat

Okay I have to admit, I love Oprah. I do. I know, lovely, but what does she have to do with food. I will get there, just give me a moment. I don’t get to watch her that often…kids you know… but I had taped her Earth Day program. Sadly last week I finally got a moment to put in on.

Egad. I will admit fully I am not a crazy environmentalist (not that being an environmentalist is crazy). I would rather categorize myself as a lazy or rather haphazard environmentalist. I don’t’ use any pesticides and only natural fertilizer (worm poo, banana peel). That is more a product of laziness and cheapness than anything. The fact that I also believe it is best for mother earth is a secondary factor. Most of my environmental “choices” are like that.

So then I watch Oprah. Egad. And it brings me to why I love her so much. She has a great ability to shape behavior and she uses it to the best of her ability. I always forget those stupid reusable bags when I go to the store, ALWAYS. Makes me crazy. Since watching her Earth Day show, I have not forgotten, not once. There is now a plastic bag ban in my household. Egad.

She had Michael Pollan on the show. He talked about the carbon footprint of food. Who knew? And then he says something that astounds me. If every family in the U.S. would eat one meatless meal a week….just one, it would be the same as taking 20 million mid sized sedans off of the road. Are you kidding me?

The reality is, for my family that is no big deal we love veggies. What better time of the year to give this a whirl than when everything is fresh and wonderful! Last week, with the exception of two days was all vegetarian. We started the week with grilled eggplant, mushrooms, corn , onions, and some sliced tomatoes. The leftovers of this got chopped and turned into a pasta sauce that was righteous (and the kids loved). Then one day it was corn and sliced tomatoes. Yum.

So, what does this all mean. No, I am not going vegetarian. However, I am encouraging you all to give it a whirl one meal a week. Come on, a little eggplant parm, can’t be so bad! :)

Finally, I have not been great at keeping up with my blog of late, but I am going to try to get two posts in a week. There is a poll to the side, please vote for what content you would most like to see most and I will try and get my rear in gear!

Almost Heaven

I am not weighing myself for a week at least. The tomatoes were fresh and so were the pork biscuits! And a fresh tomato on the pork tenderloin biscuit…. Forgetaboutit! While I did not make it to Lowells for a hot dog, there was a new restaurant in Hinton that overlooked the New River and had great Barbeque that I thoroughly enjoyed!
I am not an outdoorsman. A cabin on the River is really as rustic as this chick wants to go, but in West Virginia I can see why someone could overcome their fear of all things icky just for the chance to sleep underneath the stars. I never realized how many stars were in the sky really. I often say, that West Virginia is like an America I have read about but never got to grow up in. Some of the sterotypes are a bit true. It is a rural area. However, it is lovely and the people lovely too. As I watch the kids along the river, out until dusk, fishing without a grown up in sight, I think of some Norman Rockwell painting that somehow missed being painted. West Virginia is often, I feel, the greatest gift I will give to my children, not only for the beauty they will get to experience but the contrast it provides to their life here in the city. So if you ever get a chance to visit anywhere in West Virginia, but specifically anywhere along the Greenbrier River in Summers County West Virginia, do not pass up the opportunity.
That said, I made a great, and I mean great pasta recipe while we were up there. I got the idea from Rachel Ray, she calls it California pasta. I don’t think I changed much if anything other than omitting what I didn’t have (orange rind). It is super easy and really summery and fresh.
1 bunch of leeks slices and cleaned
1-1.5 cups artichoke hearts (you can use, canned, marinated or frozen, I used marinated because I had it)
1 pound pasta
Pesto
1 cup flat leaf parsley
½ c Olive oil
½ c parmesan
1tsp lemon rind
1tsp lime rind
1tsp orange rind

To clean leeks slice the white part, separate and put in a bowl of water. Swish around a bit to give it a “bath.” Discard water. Sautee in a bit of oil leeks until wilted add artichoke and sauté to warm through. Meanwhile start pasta. Combine, parsley, parmesan, the zests of the lemon, lime and orange (I did not have orange so I used a bit more lemon. I didn’t measure how much zest either, I just zested one and a half lemon and one lime.) pulse. Add oil and process until smooth. Once pasta done, add leek dish and pesto to pasta and combine. Serve.
I am sure if you look at Rachel’s recipe on line I didn’t follow it to a “T” however, it was close and man it was good.

Summers Winding Down

Now is a perfect time to enjoy the evenings outside. It seems like the weather here has finally broken and a bit early to boot. The evenings are so beautiful. It is a great time to have a fresh from the garden pitch in. Have everyone bring something fresh from the garden and a bottle of wine or something else to drink. Afraid you will get a bunch of cucumber salad, and tomatoes with mozzarella (could you really have too much of that?) Here are some ideas
Using cucumbers or zucchini slice into 1 ½-2” disks, and hollow out seed center. This will leave you with a vegetable “donut”. Fill the center with some Boursin cheese and top with an olive. This is good, easy and really pretty.
Take those same veggies and fill with tuna or chicken salad and a sprig of cilantro.
Make some gazpacho with those fresh tomatoes!
1 clove crushed garlic
Salt
2 tbs olive oil
5-6 tomatoes chopped
1onion chopped
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp paprika
1 ½ tbs vinegar
1 ½ c. beef bullion
Mix all and refrigerate overnight. Put in a blender, and blend, add salt if needed and serve. This is also great with some cucumber or zucchini too.
Or make some fresh salsa with the tomatoes. Mmmm. Just make it easy, make it fresh and enjoy the weather with friends!