loving fall flavors!

in the days (and years) before nolan, anthony and i took daily trips to the grocery store.  we bought one meal's worth of food at a time.  looking back now, i think..."man we were nuts" and..."it's a good thing the grocery store is less than a quarter of a mile away". 

while i was pregnant, i was a tiny bit better and went every couple of days (mainly because i felt like death for a good five months of my pregnancy and that's all the energy i could muster up).  but, even then...nothing sounded good, so i still did a lot of one meal shopping depending on what i thought might stay down for that meal.  :(

it didn't take long after nolan was born to realize that this multiple-shopping-trips-a-week business was not going to happen.  now i sit down sunday night (or monday morning if procrastination wins) and make a menu for the week and from that menu, i make a grocery list.  i go to the store one time.  my life is so much easier.  well, at least thinking up what to make for dinner on a given night is easier.

another new addition to the dinner excitement in our house is more seasonal cooking!  glazed apple-spice cake (http://www.wholeliving.com/recipe/glazed-apple-spice-cake), pureed apples and pears for nolan, and man, how did i ever live without squash!  all i knew of squash was small, yellow summer squash that you often cook in combination with zucchini, which don't get me wrong is delicious.  but...my world has changed with the introduction of winter squash! 

a previous blog post documented my foray into butternut squash (http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/pureed-butternut-squash-soups).  since then, i have found the deliciousness what is acorn squash (all because a friend bought a bunch of decorative squash(es?) for the sanctuary family picnic and i ended up taking a few home...including said acorn).  i started by cooking some for nolan.  i just cut the whole thing in half, peel and all, threw it in a baking dish and baked it for about an hour, scooped out the goodies and pureed it up.  he loved it!

last week(ish) i found a recipe for butternut orzo risotto.  now, don't be confused.  there was actually no risotto involved, so i'm not sure why it is called that...well, i suppose it is because you prepare the orzo similarly to how you would prepare risotto.  but, if that is the case it should really have been called "butternut squash orzo cooked like risotto," if you ask me.  anyway...i digress.  so, no risotto.  i also replaced the butternut with an acorn squash and omitted the fresh sage from the recipe (because i was too cheap to buy that many fresh herbs).  this meal was AMAZING and pretty healthy too!!  we loved it so much that it has been moved up in the dinner cycle and i'm making it again on sunday!  i didn't get any pictures of it, but i assure you...it is more than worth at try.  http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Butternut-Orzo-Risotto

so, apples, pears, butternut and acorn squash...check, check, check and check.  next: what in the world is a persimmon??