February 11th: butternut squash gnocchi, play dough

This is the second time I've cooked this meal, and the third time I've eaten it. My friend Janice made this for us at our Christmas cookie exchange in December and it was good and easy, so I made it for us awhile back. At that time, Olivia didn't like it, and Sadie ate a goodly portion. Tonight, Olivia ate a bit more than last time, and Sadie hardly ate a bite. Who knows?

This one comes from Michael Smith; I found a copy online that called for making your own gnocchi, but I used store-bought, the fresh kind.

Sadie Sous-Chef

Goat Cheese Gnocchi with Sage Butternut Squash Sauce


50 ml (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
2 onions, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut in 1-cm (1/2-inch) cubes
250 ml (1 cup) water
2 ml (1/2 tsp) salt
Lots of freshly ground pepper
Leaves from 1 bunch fresh sage, thinly sliced (or 1 tbsp/15 ml dried sage)
1 pkg prepared fresh gnocchi, 500 g (1 lb)soft goat cheese, to taste
toasted nuts, such as pecans (optional)


In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic; sauté until textures soften and flavours brighten, 5 minutes or so. Toss in butternut squash, water, salt and pepper. Gently stir together, combining flavours. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a slow, steady simmer, cover tightly and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until squash is soft and delicious, another 15 minutes or so. Mash sauce lightly with a potato masher, but don’t turn it into a paste.

Meanwhile, cook gnocchi according to package directions, timing it to be ready when the sauce is (good luck!). As soon as sauce and gnocchi are ready, add sage and gnocchi to sauce and stir, stir, stir.

Serve topped with goat cheese and nuts, to taste.

Makes 4 servings.

The only drawback to this meal is that it is heavy; I felt a little ill after eating a probably slightly larger portion than required. Likely should have made a salad on the side.


Alas, I had to make play dough for school. Remember last year? Beautiful sky blue play dough? This year it looks like I'm sending a human liver to school. Olivia and I discussed orange, but oopsy, we ran out of yellow food colouring early on, so I used up all the red, thinking maybe it would end up an orangey-pink after being mixed with all the white flour and salt. Nope. Liver red. Yum yum.

October 11th: Balsamic Beets, Curry Squash

Working our way through the waning farm veggies, and I'm happy to have a reason to cook my favourite beet recipe, from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry:

These Beets Were Made for Walkin' (Roasted Beets & Shallots with Balsamic Vinegar)

6 medium-sized whole fresh beets, about 1 1/2 lbs/680 g

12 small to medium-sized shallots, peeled (I used onions, since that what I had, and cooked them a bit longer)

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp minced fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried, whatever's handy)

1 tsp balsamic vinegar (or more, to taste)

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425°F. Wrap beets individually in foil. Place on middle oven rack and roast for about 1 hour, until beets are tender (you can pierce them with a fork), but not soft. Exact roasting time will depend on the size of the beets.

While beets are roasting, prepare shallots. Place peeled shallots in an 8 x 8-inch baking pan. Add olive oil and thyme and toss to coat. Set aside.

When beets are finished roasting, remove from oven and place pan of shallots in oven. Unwrap beets and let cook while shallots are roasting. Roast shallots for 15 minutes, stirring once, halfway through cooking time.

When beets are cool enough to handle, peel them. If you cut off the stem end, the skin should come off very easily. Slice each beet into six wedges. Place in serving bowl. Add hot shallots and any olive oil and thyme you can scrape from the pan (using a rubber spatula helps). Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and toss lightly. Serve hot.

Makes 6 servings.

To accompany, a re-try from last year, from October 2010's Chatelaine: Sweet & Spicy Squash. I don't know that I'll ever love love squash, but this was pretty tasty, and when you're trying to work your way through a lot of squash, as I am, this is not a bad way to go.

In total, the meal consisted of the beets, squash, boiled carrots, fried green tomatoes and fried mushrooms (this last being the only item not from the farm - not bad for a local + vegetarian meal!).

September 27th: spaghetti squash with pomodoro sauce

I have been working for years on squash, trying to get myself to like them. I try all the varieties, and I try all different approaches to them. Nothing seems to work. I do like a tiny acorn squash, roasted and drenched in maple syrup, about once a year. I have yet to convince G or O to get on board the squash train, and I can't really blame them.


However, with our veggie baskets from the farm including several squash recently, I'm on task again. In the past week, I've cooked two spaghetti squash and one delicata. I have three more delicatas and two huge acorns to get through yet. Jeepers. I did some searching on Epicurious and found this spaghetti squash with pomodoro sauce recipe which - surprise! - all three of us ended up liking. I had reservations about spaghetti sauce on squash; it just sounds wrong, but, it actually works. The sauce is so flavourful itself, you actually don't taste the squash, and the texture of the squash is close enough to pasta that it doesn't seem weird. Best bonus: upping the health factor with more veggies! The sauce is spicy though; if you have spice-averse eaters, I recommend cutting back on the red pepper flakes.


We had enough sauce left over that tomorrow night I'm going to cook up some sausage in the sauce and have it over pasta for real.

Notice the purple basil on the sauce - gorgeous!

I served this with Mediterranean pork chops from October 2011's Chatelaine, but they were not too exciting, so I'm tossing the recipe.

February 22nd: Quinoa & Squash (and chickpea) Salad

Day 2 of veggie salad make at home deliciousness experiment. Tonight's salad was inspired by one purchased last week at Cuisine & Passion, a local take out place with awesome food. The recipe came from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I made it as per the book for supper, then added some chickpeas to the leftovers, for the lunch version. Not that we're going full-on vegetarian, so it is probably less important for us, but quinoa is one of the few foods that contains complete protein. Other than quinoa and soybeans (superfoods on their own), beans and grains combined create complete protein, meaning, "the two contain complementary types of amino acids that cannot be produced by our bodies." (HtCEV). If you don't eat meat or animal foods like eggs and cheese, this is pretty much the only way you can get it. That's it for the lesson; now for the recipe:

Quinoa & Squash Salad

1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions (20-30 minutes)
1 small butternut squash*, peeled, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces and gently boiled until tender, 10-15 minutes
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely diced red onion or shallot
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tbsps balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley or chives


In a large bowl, gently toss together the quinoa, squash, pepper, onion and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk the vinegar and oil together and add half to bowl. Toss and add more dressing to taste. Garnish with parsley.

*I used squash. The original recipe calls for one large or two small sweet potatoes.

For the lunch version, I threw in some cooked and cooled chickpeas. No idea how many. Till I thought it looked like a good amount. Très helpful, no?

October 13th: garlic + lemon + cilantro = yummy spinach and fish

Verdict:
Try Again: fish & squash recipes

I should work a two-day work week every week. Two productive days, sandwiched between two four-day weekends, makes for one happy Kirsten. Tonight, to celebrate: healthy, tasty foods from October 2010's Chatelaine: Seared trout and spinach salad with Sweet & spicy squash. Greg's on the fence about the fish and I'm on the fence about the squash, so I guess we'll keep both recipes and try them again. This is not how it's supposed to work. The criterion is simple: we both need to love the recipe in order to keep it. Sometimes we just can't agree though.

The fish recipe called for salmon but I subbed in trout. The dressing for the salad called for one clove garlic, but I upped it to four. Who doesn't love more garlic? There was enough garlic and lemon to mute the flavour of the cilantro, which Greg loathes, so everyone was happy to eat it. Olivia sampled fresh cilantro and parsley as I was herb-chopping, but she didn't dig them overly much. She did eat up her meal though, then cake, then a pickle, then cheese, then milk. Her appetite goes on and on.

The squash I was working with was not of the best quality, so it wasn't as easy to judge the squash recipe. That's part of the reason I want to try it again: the curry topping was good and I want to give it more of a fair shot.

October 7th: butternut squash soup cook-off

Verdict: can't give it away! Read below...

October 2010's Today's Parent had a recipe for Butternut Squash soup that sounded like an appropriately warm and fall-like food. At the same time, I had been given a butternut squash soup recipe by my friend Janice. What's a girl to do? Clearly, slice the butternut squash in half, halve the two recipes, and have a cook-off! The magazine's recipe sounded like it would be more flavourful, with a variety of herbs thrown in. Janice's sounded almost too simple, with only an optional red apple to take the flavour up a notch, should one so desire.

So, what was the verdict? Drum roll please ... Janice's soup wins, hands down, with a vote of 3-0. G, O and I all loved Janice's soup, and we ended up pouring the leftover TP soup down the drain. Lesson learned: always trust your friends over the media!

Here's the winning soup recipe:

Butternut squash soup

1 small butternut squash, about 2 lbs (1kg), peeled, seeds removed, chopped
2 tbsp (30 mL) butter
1 onion, chopped
1/4 tsp (1 mL) nutmeg
6 cups (1.5 L) chicken stock
1 red apple, peeled, cored, chopped
salt to taste

Prepare squash. In a large pot, melt butter. Add onion and nutmeg and cook 5-8 min. Add squash and stock. Bring to a boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer until squash is tender, about 25 minutes. With 10 minutes remaining on the timer, add chopped apple. Remove squash and apple pieces and purée in a blender in batches. Return to pot, warm if necessary, and add salt to taste.

Makes 6-8 servings.

TP soup: top and left; Janice's soup: right and bottom