Italian Stuffed Squash

Monday 31 October

A couple of little butternut squashes jumped into our bags at the Farmers' Market.  They solved the problem of what to do for Halloween, as they are sort of relatives of the pumpkin, and could spend some time roasting in the oven while we spent two hours outdoors (dressed as an undertaker and a pirate) welcoming some 175 trick-or-treaters.

This is what we normally do for stuffed squash.  But we needed to use what we had, which was Italian sausage and some leftover saffron rice.  So our seasoning took a cue from risotto alla zucca, browning onion with the sausage crumble, adding chopped parsley, and topping with parmesan. 

When we went in for dinner, we united the already-prepped stuffing with stuffers, topped them, and broiled them until they were hot.  And the results were tasty enough to keep us scraping until there was only a skin left.

Happy Return Steaks

Sunday 30 October

There are two choices on how to welcome home someone after an eight-hour drive: something long-simmered that you can just ladle out, or something you can cook in a minute.  Holt chose the latter, with two perfect little tenderloins.  He pan-fried them and some halved mini zephyrs (separate pans, of course), and topped them with rehydrated porcini mushrooms in their juice.

Note the finger wiping the plate; it went right into a mouth.  And later, we licked the plates clean.

Fettucine al Salmone

Wednesday 26 October

A quick off-the-cuff meal before going to CCM to see their production of Coram Boy.

Then, an interval while bureaucratic errands sent Barbara to Canada for three dinners.

Linguiça with Potatoes and Collards

Tuesday 25 October

Holt picked up some linguiça sausage from Kroger & Sons at Findlay Market, just because he was interested in the seasoning (marjoram and red wine, they said).  Almost all the recipes on the web are for soup, but he found this one that's sort of a Portuguese-style "frah" - without the eggs.

  Changes, though.  We were not thrilled by its addition of goat cheese and raisins, so we left them out; and we used two sausages, 3 medium potatoes, and the leftover collards from Friday's corned beef (which still contained some nice pickling spices).  We also played around with the cooking order a bit, adding smaller-diced potatoes just after the sausages, as they would take more time to cook than the onions and garlic, then throwing in some chicken broth and covering the pan so the potatoes could get tender.  Since the collards were fully cooked, they went in with the herbs at the end.

Verdict: delicious, though as usual with Epicurious recipes, it's nothing like what the author intended.  And the sausages are a keeper.

Classic Corned Beef Hash

Monday 24 October

We turned Friday's corned beef into a classic hash.  Since the meat was so perfect, we hand-chopped it, and its accompaniments of onions and Yukon golds, into nice dice.  We cooked it in our usual fashion, sautéing the vedge first, then letting it steam covered with some chicken broth until the potatoes were tender, and then mixing in the diced meat with plenty of thyme and parsley and broiling it in the oven until the top was brown.  

Red Poblanos Rellenos (again)

Sunday 23 October

We found more ripe red poblanos at Findlay Market, but thought we'd change up the dish slightly from the way we'd made them before.

So instead of tomatillos, we used ripe yellow tomatoes in our salsa.  But when we mixed in the fresh cilantro, the salsa turned green, so there was very little visible difference...

though the sweetness of the tomatoes did come through.

Swordfish and Saffron Rice

Saturday 22 October

We wanted a fairly sedate meal, so we defrosted a couple of swordfish steaks from Trader Joe's, and simply pan-fried them, topping them at the end with a sauce deglazed from the pan with lemon, then showered with the last of the garden basil leaves, and butter. 

On the side, some simple rice steamed up with saffron.  So soothing.