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chameleon boy

I made one of our favorite fall dinners this evening: delicata squash soup.* The bits of produce leftover from the prep inspired some silliness.

*I added roasted garlic and used Italian sausage instead of bacon. Extremely tasty.

the imprecise cook makes cannelloni

Here is an easy, adaptable recipe that even got Hijo helping out - all criteria for great weeknight dinner options. It's also quite delicious.

Almost everything in this recipe can be changed to your taste, the season, and quantity you want to make. 

You'll need:

Fresh pasta sheets or egg roll wrappers, about 1/3 lb., or 8 wrappers
I love the eggroll wrappers they have at my local Safeway. I use them as fresh pasta all the time and they are the perfect size for makeing cannelloni.

Approximately 1 cup ricotta cheese
Stir this up with salt, pepper, and fresh basil if you have it.  Otherwise put whatever seasoning and herbs you like and are handy.  See? Totally adaptable.

2-3 cups red sauce
If it's summer time and you have fresh tomatoes, by all means make the sauce from scratch.  I have used imported Italian canned tomatoes to make sauce, and I have (like tonight) used jarred sauce.

Meat
I'm not even going to list a quantity here, just add what you like to the sauce. Use ground beef, use sweet or hot Italian sausage, use chicken. This is coompletely optional.  I happen to think this is totally delicious with no meat at all, but tonight we added both hamburger and Italian sausage.

Mozzarella and/or parmesan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

If you are making your sauce, or adding things to a store-bought sauce, do that first.  Line the bottom of your baking pan with a generous portion of sauce. Take an eggroll wrapper and place a couple of generous tablespoons of ricotta mixture towards one side.  Roll it up into a tube and place it in your pan on top of your sauce.

Keep going until you fill up your pan.  Then dump the rest of the sauce all over it.  Sprinkle the top generously with paremsan or mozzarella (I prefer parmesan).  Bake for about 30 minutes, or until bubbly.  Let sit for ten minutes before serving.

Updated to add:  Hijo just declared this, "the best thing I've ever eaten in my whole life!"

delicata squash soup

At the farmers' market a few weeks ago Hijo and I had one of the best butternut squash soups we'd ever tasted. It was silky and complex and satisfying. We sat on the benches in front of the musicians slurping soup and listening to folk music. I vowed to make a yummy squash soup of my own. Many weeks have gone by, but I finally fufilled my promise.

Like all my recipes this one is imprecise and should be able to accommodate all sorts of your own personal quirks.  I chose delicata squash instead of butternut because I really like delicata, and they're easier to work with than the ubiquitous butternut.

2 medium delicata squash
olive oil

1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 T butter
3 carrots
minced jalapeno or other hot pepper to taste (optional)

2 cups give or take Swanson's low sodium chicken broth
3/4-1cup half and half

pinch allspice
salt to taste

two strips bacon (I used peppered)

Cut the squash into four pieces, scoop out the seeds and gunk and roast it on a sheet coated in olive oil at 375 for 30-45 minutes until tender, turning over about halfway through.

While the squash is baking, saute the onions in the butter in a medium sauce pan.  When onions are soft and starting to brown add the peeled, sliced carrots and hot pepper, if using, and stir frequently. When the carrots start to brown, add the chicken broth and bring the soup to a low boil.

When the squash is tender, let it cool enough to handle and scoop the flesh out and into the soup pot. Let it all boil until the carrots are very tender.

Take the soup off the heat and add the half and half. Very carefully, use your immersion blender to whip that puppy into smooth creamy goodness.  Add the pinch of allspice, and taste to see if salt or more cream is needed.  Return to heat at lowest setting while you fry up two strips of bacon until crispy.

Pour the soup into two bowls. Crumble one bacon strip atop each serving and inhale.

Serves 2

(Hijo thought that with the hot pepper and black pepper on the bacon that it was too spicy. I loved it.)

UPDATED to add that all the veggies in this recipe, including the hot pepper, came from local farms.