Using the butternut squash: Butternut squash with Israeli couscous and feta

I had a box of Israeli couscous, a gift from a friend (each year for Christmas, she gives me a bag of her favorite items from Trader Joe's). I decided to use it with some butternut squash.

I roasted a butternut squash with slices of sweet onion in a 400 degree oven for about 50 minutes.

The squash was very soft, but I wanted the onions to cook more.

As per the instructions on the box, I toasted the couscous for 5 minutes before adding liquid.

I used butternut squash stock to cook the couscous instead of water. Once cooked, I added the couscous to the roasted butternut squash and onions in a large bowl...

...then mixed them together.

I added some feta cubes too.

It was good warm (right after it was done), at room temperature (because husband's meat was not yet ready), and cold (as leftovers).

It could have used a bit more texture, as everything was soft, perhaps with the addition of some toasted almonds, hazelnuts, or pepitas. Dried cranberries would also go well with the mix, with or without the nuts.

Using the butternut squash: Butternut squash pita pizza

In the process of trying to use the butternut squash backlog, I had some leftover roasted butternut squash and mushrooms. I decided to make them into a pita pizza.

I started with a layer of the roasted butternut squash, which I lightly mashed on to the pita. Then I put on the roasted mushrooms (cutting the whole mushrooms into quarters) and dollops of ricotta. Finally, I covered the pizza with some shredded mozzarella.

I baked it in a 400 degree oven until the cheese was melted, which took about 12 minutes.

I really enjoyed the butternut squash as the sauce base for the pizza. However, I'm the only one in the family who thinks that. No one tried the pita pizza with me.

Using the butternut squash: Butternut squash pasta sauce

I bought some butternut squash cappellacci (large tortellini) from Tuscan Kitchen in Salem, NH. (I probably should have tried to make my own with all of the butternut squash that I'm trying to use....)

I decided to make a butternut squash sauce for them. I roasted a butternut squash, then pureed some of the cooked cubes with butternut squash stock and a bit of light cream.

It tasted great, but ended up the color of cheese whiz, which was not very appealing.

I took a picture of the squash with the sauce. It's odd to me that the orange squash turned this color. I'm thinking it might be the cream, but I used very little.

If you don't mind the color, it's worth a try. I think it would work well with a non-filled pasta as well. You can make the sauce the consistency you'd like by blending in more or less stock and/or cream.

Salad bar: Micro greens, citrus salad

Over the past month or so, we've been getting bags of micro greens in the weekly boxes. I've used them to make a salad with pepitas and blueberries...

...and a salad with tomatoes and blue cheese.

I made a salad with some roasted sweet potatoes and beets with walnuts over some of the greens. I had never tried sweet potatoes in a salad before; I would do it again (if I hadn't just finished off all of the sweet potatoes in my pantry for the sweet potato gratin).

I based this salad on this recipe for citrus salad with candied ginger, but didn't use the candied ginger, as husband is not a fan. I used more citrus zest than the recipe had called for to add more flavor, given the skipped ginger. I used a pumelo, blood oranges, a sumo orange, and some clementines.

Peeling the pumelo was a real project. Make sure to leave plenty of time to do it.

Here's the completed salad. For the almonds in the recipe, I used some rosemary marcona almonds from Trader Joe's that I had in my pantry.

Finally, here's what the beet gnocchi from the Balaboosta cookbook look like if you use golden beets instead of red ones:

Sweet potato and goat cheese gratin

With many sweet potatoes to use, the other night I entered the words "sweet potato goat cheese" into Google search. The first few links were for mashed sweet potatoes with goat cheese and for a quiche with sweet potatoes and goat cheese. The link that caught my eye was this recipe for a sweet potato and goat cheese gratin from Food and Wine. Click the link to get the recipe. I'll wait.

It called for 3 pounds of sweet potatoes, which I had, almost exactly.

My sweet potatoes got a bit shriveled in the pantry. I must not be storing them properly. The pantry is cool; potatoes do well in there, but the sweet potatoes shrivel.

The recipe claims 30 minutes of prep time, which is likely correct if you're using a few large sweet potatoes. But with all of these small ones, it took me closer to an hour to prep the dish, which was not great, given that it then needed to cook for two hours. Plan this dish for a time when you can start early, so you don't end up eating after 9:30 at night on a weeknight like we did.

First, I peeled all of the potatoes (with a paring knife, given the shriveling) and put them in a bowl of water.

Then I prepped the sauce. I used 10.5 oz of goat cheese instead of the 8 oz called for in the recipe. I also used light cream instead of heavy cream, because it's what I had in the fridge.

Once the milk, cream, garlic and honey starts to simmer, take it off and add in the goat cheese, salt and pepper.

Whisk until smooth.

Drain the sweet potatoes.

Start slicing them....

...and layer them in the baking dish.

Add sauce between the layers.

Here's the gratin ready to bake.

And here it is after two hours of baking.

Husband thinks it needed more goat cheese and less honey. Overall, it was good, but not a dish that I'd make very often, if only because of the length of time needed to make it.

What's in the box, 3/18/15 and 3/4/15 editions

I think this post might better be titled, "Where have I been? 3/18/15 edition," but I'll stick to the usual post name.

Here's what was in yesterday's box, the first of the spring share (and the first of the 2015-16 full year share as well). We've now gone through an entire year's share together. I hope you're keeping up with the veggies better than I have been lately.

In this firsts box of the spring: two bags of greens, watermelon radishes, apples, half a pound of coffee beans, a loaf of bread, hakurei turnips, carrots, and potatoes. I'm planning to use some of the coffee beans to try this recipe from the Splendid Table for slow roasting carrots on a bed of coffee beans.

One of the carrots in yesterday's box looked like it was giving a piggyback ride to a smaller carrot.

Awww.....

Two weeks ago, in the last box of the winter share (and last of the 2014-15 full year share), there were purple top turnips, potatoes, carrots, apples, greens, very tiny beets, and two butternut squash (which brought my total up to 13 butternut squash in the pantry).

So, where have I been these past couple of weeks?

Portland, Oregon, where I had a great view from my hotel room...

...including some beautiful sunrises.

I celebrated my birthday while in Portland. Husband sent flowers...

...and friends made sure that I had cake for my birthday.

While in Portland, I had dinner at Natural Selection, an excellent vegetarian restaurant.

We also had dinner at Departure (twice!) and lunch at Veritable Quandry.

Then I flew home through Seattle, with some beautiful views during the short flight to the north.

 

I've also been in Charleston, SC over the past couple of weeks. I ate a shrimp taco and an oyster taco at 167 Raw for lunch. We had dinner at The Ordinary; no photos, but highly recommended if you like seafood. The razor clams with apple and cilantro are nothing short of amazing.

I tried limpets for the first time at the Old School House Pub & Restaurant in Hudson, MA (no plane flight needed).

I've also found myself sitting in a local Starbucks a few times, trying to finish a book chapter with my new favorite drink, the flat white. Here's a photo from February, when the snow piles were above your head when you sat in the chairs by the window.

I'm happy to report that while there earlier this week, there is not much of that snow left in the windows, although a fast moving squall with hail provided evidence that it's not quite spring yet.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I'm back now. Time to start cooking all of those butternut squash!

Healthy breakfasts on the road: Voodoo Donuts, Portland

In Portland recently, I took a walk to Voodoo Donuts.

They have many different types of donuts, in a variety of colors, flavors and sizes. Some are dipped in breakfast cereals. One has bacon on it. To counteract the bacon, they even have many types of vegan donuts.

I selected the namesake donut.

It was a bit like eating Mr. Bill.

Oh no!