Happy National Pie Day

Apparently yesterday was National Pie Day.

Neither my friend or I knew this but we subconsciously decided to partake.

Damn.

Everything in moderation (even Boston Creme Pie).

A Sick Plate of Butternut Squash Pasta

Siiiiiick, man. Yeah I'm from 80s... but also really spectacular at puns (not really). Because I'm actually pretty sick.

My second semester of graduate school just started up again and I am ready to get blogging!

This recipe was pretty sick - and in the surfer slang way too. It is adapted from Roasted Butternut Squash with Penne. (Pretty much all ingredients are the same, just adjusted amounts based on my squash amount).

First of all, my head is so stuffed I wrote Buttersquash about 20 times thinking, "that doesn't look right". Well yeah it doesn't look right! My snot has officially taken over my brain people. It's like that mucus family from the commercial...



I have a family of lazy, horrible spellers living in my brain now... but they just experienced a delicious meal and no Mucinex so they are going to have to stay in there for a bit.

Ingredients

1 package of pre-cut butternut squash (a whole butternut squash would work here too)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 shallots, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 sprig dried sage leaves from Mother-In-Law's garden or grocery store

1 dash of thyme

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1/2 cups low-fat milk and 1/2 cup full fat milk

salt

fresh ground black pepper
1 pound pennette pasta
~1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
~1/3 cup grated mozzarella cheese

To Make:
1. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Roast squash for about 45 minutes. Obviously if you have a full squash, it'll depend on how big it is.
2. Puree squash in food processor with about 1 cup of the chicken stock.
3. In medium saucepan, saute the shallots and garlic in olive oil. Add the pureed squash and the other 1/2 cup of chicken stock, all the milk, sage, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to medium-low and let that baby thicken.
4. Meanwhile, get your pasta cooking.
5. Put the oven down to 350° F. You may have had to turn it back off and on because you mistimed everything and you thought your tootsies were going to fry off in the kitchen because it was so hot.
7. Pour the sauce over the pasta in the pot and pour the mixture into a 13X9 baking dish. Sprinkle Parm and Mozz on top. Bake for 15 minutes until it is hot and delicious. Just like your bad self.

Pair with a salad or your favorite veggie and enjoy!

Sorry for the Delay in Your Regular Programming

But we are experiencing time management difficulties. We will be back on track soon.

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day! I can't believe I'm back in school!

Dyanomite!

My friends are from Rhode Island and tell me that there is a sandwich called "the Dynamite" that is basically like a pepper filled sloppy joes. I got to try some of their yummy leftovers and decided to try my own version. If you are from Rhode Island and I'm butchering this recipe, please feel free to leave me a comment - but I DID warn you that it is my own version!

"Dynamite"/Homemade "Sloppy Joes"

- 1 pound ground turkey

- 2 bell peppers

- 1 onion

- 1 15oz can tomato sauce (or more)

- spices/condiments to taste - this is what really makes or breaks it - make sure you taste!

Cook turkey in some oil (as to not stick until the turkey's own fat gets into the pan) until cooked through. Meanwhile, saute onion and sliced bell peppers in olive oil. Combine when done with tomato sauce and spices. We used a good splash of the beer we were drinking, several good squeezes of ketchup, oregano, basil, cayenne, paprika, and chili powder. Toast some hot dogs buns and all set!

Yum!

Wordless Wednesdays

Black Bean Salad

I have a delicious recipe for you all that is super easy to make and doesn't require too many ingredients outside of your pantry. Nick and I eat it for dinner with some bread on the side and we are full after.

Heidi from 101 Cookbooks created this black bean salad recipe so I'm going to link to it so you can look at her lovely site and explore the other recipes there.

Our changes to the recipe include using salad or spinach (instead of arugula) depending on what we have and doubling the dressing because it is so tasty. Also, I don't use mustard in the vinaigrette as the husband is still learning to like it and the dressing still works perfectly. Do

n't forget the feta - it makes the dish irresistible!

Monday Links

If you look at any blogs besides mine (I don't know why you would bother anyway), but IF YOU DID, you will notice that most bloggers do some form of weekly column. I'm into peer pressure so I'm going to join.

Monday will be links day - at least one link from each of the 4 categories: crafting, food, style and a funny, interesting or just plain pretty article. Some may overlap if I decide the interesting article is food related or the crafting is something that may fall under the style category.

Crafting:

Fat quarter handbag

Food:

Ice cream, you scream... we all get fat.

Style:

Adorable shoes that are too much money

Interesting:

Time to plan your next vacation

And because every post needs a picture, here are my feet.

All three of them?