Bobby Flay’s Orange-Glazed Grilled Acorn Squash and Mashed Potato Cakes


Acorn squash, with sauteed spinach, chicken-Gruyere sausage and a black-truffle mashed potato pancake.

This yummy squash dish (recipe here) was OUTSTANDING.  It took a while to make, since you have to make the glaze separately and both bake AND grill the squash, but the investment of time is well worth it.  My only other issue with this is that half a squash is just too much, because it’s VERY filling.  I would say that one-fourth of a squash is a more appropriate serving size, so I’d recommend preparing them as in the recipe and just cutting them in half right before serving.  Delicious, though, and a very creative use of an underutilized vegetable.  If you’ve never cooked acorn squash before, this is a great recipe to start off with.

Mashed potato pancake recipe here.  I adapted the recipe by using leftover truffle mashed potatoes.  Fabulous.

Avgolemono Chicken Soup with Rice, topped with sauteed spinach

This recipe is pretty good, but doesn’t really have enough “oomph,” for my taste, for it to be something that I would make again on a regular basis.  It is, however, the PERFECT thing to make for a family member that has been sick or is recovering from a cold, flu, etc.  I know that’s not terribly exciting, but it is good to have a few recipes like that in your arsenal.  You could spice it up and make it more palatable for someone who isn’t infirm, but that kind of goes against the nature of it, I think.  It’s a simple, good, tasty chicken and rice soup.  It would be great for small children on a cold day.  Not fancy, just basic.

Lavender Honey Tea Bread

This post is LONG overdue, but we went to the Blanco Lavender Festival with my in-laws (who are lavender farmers) this summer.  We met at our house beforehand for a light breakfast before the car ride and lots of walking around at beautiful lavender farms and markets.  I thought, in light of the occasion, that it would be fun to make this recipe with lavender in it.  It was tasty, rich, moist and sweet floral without being cloying.  Recipe here.

Bean Toasts with Herbs and Eggs

(Please forgive  the blurry camera phone photo…my camera has broken recently, but a wonderful new anniversary gift holds the promise of improved photo quality on this blog…as soon as I figure out how to use it!)

This dish is very delicious, very easy and very good for you!

This is a wonderful, high-protein dish to start the day off with.  Yum.  It’s been a few weeks since I made this and it looks so good, I think I’ll plan to make it again very soon.

Recipe here.