Adventures in Cooking

Tonight I tried a recipe that I made up by myself. I had the idea of making butternut squash with whole wheat pasta. I searched the internet for some similar recipes to get a few ideas and ended up blending a bunch together with my own twist.

First, can I just profess my love for butternut squash? It is so delicious and flavorful and full of vitamins. I almost love it as much as eggplant, almost. I love eggplant more because butternut squash is a bitch to chop up. The rind is super tough and you really need a vegetable peeler to get through it. Except I don't have own, so I tried to use a cheese slicer. Epic fail.

Hmmm, butternut squash kinda looks like.....yeah....I'm not going to go there.



I sauteed chopped garlic with chopped shallot is a little olive oil. This smells sooooo wonderfully good. When a recipe starts like this, its just good.



Then I threw in some white wine, fresh ground nutmeg, paprika and allspice. When I first started cooking I didn't know what allspice was and I bought Mrs. Dash thinking that allspice just meant a blend of different spices. I was wrong.



Then I threw in the chopped up squash. I microwaved it for 2 minutes first because butternut squash takes a long time to cook and you want it to be fully cooked and tender, but not mushy. I also added some fresh basil. I poured in unsalted chicken broth, put the cover in and let it just cook away on medium heat. You want to be able to smash up the squash a little but again, you don't want it to be mushy.



Lastly, I spooned the mixture of the whole wheat spaghetti. Yum. It was rich but not heavy, I really liked the spices and the squash worked well with the whole wheat spaghetti. It tasted like Fall in a bowl, you could taste the leaves turning color and the warm, chunky sweaters. Ok, it didn't taste like sweaters but you get my point.



I also made chicken and garlic bread to go with this, which I didn't chronicle because it wasn't that exciting (the garlic bread was the stuff from the grocery store bakery). It was a good thing I had other food because after I busted my ass chopping up that squash, garlic, shallot, and sauteing and such, Brady informs me that he doesn't like squash. I know I have made him butternut squash before and he liked it. Now that I think of it, that was before we were married, I guess now that we are married he can just tell it like it is. I wonder what else he doesn't like of mine? Well tough cookies Brady, I love butternut squash and it loves me and we aren't ending this beautiful relationship just because you are a picky eater.