Neither Neil nor I have ever had butternut squash before. I didn’t really think I was missing anything but you know, there’s always room to expand your palate. And squash seems like something that everybody should be eating anyways. Also, in honor of October being Vegetarian Awareness Month, I felt that I should make something vegetarian. Because it’s not like I make that on a regular basis or anything, it’s Vegetarian Awareness Month silly.

When I went to Sprouts early in the week, it took all my willpower not to buy one of everything. Everything looked so fresh and beautiful and colorful! So I decided I would buy something new everytime. This week, it was butternut squash.

After doing some extensive research on the internet, I opted to roast whole halves of the squash and stuff it with couscous. Why? Because I can.

But really, I wanted to be able to taste the true squashyness of it without dousing it in excessive butter and brown sugar. What exactly is this butternut squash who I have been missing from my life these past 22 years??

To tell you the truth Mr. Internet, I think I might dice them and douse it in something next time. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, oh but I did, but I think it would be a nicer side dish than a stuffing platform.

Is that even a cooking term? “Stuffing platform”. Oh my.

There really isn’t a set recipe for this, there are so many different stuffings you could make and roasting it doesn’t really require a recipe so here’s a walk through on what to do:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. This is a good place to start.

I always like to wash my vegetables fully. My mom taught me that and that is what I do.

Now lob off your squash’s head. And give a menacing laugh as you do it. Muhahaha.

Now you want to split the squash right down the middle. And holy balloon animals, this was quite hard to do. My knife got stuck halfway through!

Be persistent and wahoo! Success!

Now scoop out the seeds and that stringy stuff with a spoon. You can toast those or toss ‘em. I tossed them today but I may try toasting them later on.

Ok, now that they’re nicely cleaned, set them on a foil lined baking sheet. I’m lazy and the foil catches all the remnants and makes cleaning so much easier. And you’ll see later on that for this particular dish it’s a very good idea to line your favorite sheet with foil!

Now drizzle the entire thing with some olive oil.

Sprinkle on some brown sugar and dot with a bit of butter. There’s about a tablespoon of brown sugar and a teaspoon of butter on each half. I looked at some recipes that required total coverage of the squash half with brown sugar, but like I said, I wanted to keep it pretty close to the original flavor of the squash so I didn’t drown it in sugar.

Set in the oven and roast for anywhere from 35 minutes to 1 hour. I kept checking on it so mine took about an hour to roast completely. You’ll know it’s ready when a fork prick shows it to be tender.

Next, prepare your favorite stuffing mix. I made about two cups of couscous with a handful of fresh parsley and some oregano.

Remove your squash and scoop out the “flesh” from the long part of it. I put those bits right into my couscous mixture.

Do you see the black spots on the lower left hand corner of that picture? That’s the reason why you want to line your baking sheet! Some of the buttery sugary goodness ran off the squash and burned on the sheet. Can you imagine cleaning that?? I shudder at the thought.

Stuff your squash as desired and place it back in the oven for another 20 minutes or so. Just enough for your stuffing to become a little more incorporated with the squash and all the flavors to get to know eachother better. Remove and enjoy!

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On my last visit to the grocery store, I had an incredible find: baby portabello mushrooms. And lemme tell you, am I obsessed with babies. Baby spinach, baby carrots, baby corn, baby kitties, baby babies, and now baby portabellos.

The fabulous thing about them is that they don’t shrink nearly as much as regular button mushrooms. No sir. You cook and cook and cook ‘em and they stay nice and firm and “meaty”.

Now, there’s only two people who live in my apartment. Well, not including the cats, but they’re cats so that doesn’t count. Anyways, you can always tell that I buy in bulk, because for about 2 or 3 consecutive days, the same ingredients will show up time and time again. We ate the one package of baby portabellos in two meals. The first was this lasagna roll up and the other was a hearty mushroom filling on a hoagie that I will post about later.

You may also notice that the chives, oh the lovely chives, show up again in this dish. They would have gone bad if I’d left them in the fridge any longer! Oh the woes of a small family.

Lasagna Roll-ups

6 pieces lasagna, cooked to al dente
1 tbsp butter
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
5-6 caps baby Portabello mushrooms, sliced and diced*
2 tbsp fresh minced chives
1/4 cup heavy cream
Alotta cheese… as much or as little as your heart desires

1. Start by boiling your lasagna until al dente in boiling water with a pinch of salt. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Run the noodles under cold water and lay out flat on a baking sheet. You may want to spray them ever so lightly with cooking spray to ensure that they don’t dry out. Drying out your lasagna would be disastrous. Don’t do it.

3. Meanwhile, melt a tablespoon butter over medium heat and add the minced garlic and onions. Let them hang out for 4-5 minutes or until the onions are translucent.

Now take a few caps of these babies and wash them well. There’s a whole bunch of hate from way better cooks than me about washing mushrooms. They say it makes them soggy and takes away from the flavor, etc etc. They recommend just wiping them down with a damp paper towel.

HOWEVER, my mama taught me about germs and the like so I will not partake in any of this gently wiping shananigans. Nope, I will wash my mushrooms thoroughly in cold water. Not hot water, c’mon.

Separate the caps from the stems.

*You will want to dice the stems since they are tougher than the caps and just slice the caps into approximately 1/8″ slices.
4. Throw in the mushrooms in with the onions and then add the chives right on top. Let them cook for another 3-4 minutes.

5. Now here’s the fun part, just drizzle in the heavy cream all over your mushroom and onion mixture. Mmmmm.

6. Grate up some cheese. You know I love me some cheese. I used the rest of my sharp cheddar and swiss. Drop into the mushroom mixture and turn off the heat and stir. You don’t want to cook the cheese because they’ll become tough.

7. Spoon the mixture onto the lasagna strips.

8. And roll them up. Make sure you’re not pushing the mixture out till the end.

9. Lightly spray your favorite baking pan with cooking spray. I used my trusty 9″ pie pan.

10. Lay your rolls, seam down, into the dish. I had some leftover pasta sauce from earlier in the week so I coated the bottom of the pan with that. I have no regrets on doing so! Coat with some Parmesan cheese. Set in oven for about 20 minutes.

Remove and enjoy with garlic bread!

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When I asked Neil what he wanted as his birthday dinner, he only had one suggestion to offer: mac and cheese.

Now, as everyone probably knows, I absolutely love cheese. All kinds of cheese. However, I have a love/hate relationship when it comes to macaroni and cheese. See, my freshman year in college, my mom bought me a Sam’s size package of about 36 boxes of Kraft mac and cheese. I only lived 15 minutes away from my parents but I was being independent. So I taught my roommates to use the full amount of butter for maximum yummy-ness for this delectable dish and well, we did… and we probably ate more than 36 boxes of mac and cheese that year.

Ever since then, I can’t really bring myself to eat too much mac and cheese. The yellow cheesiness and strange powder-cheese smell are disturbing to my psyche (how’s that for a psychoanalysis?? I knew that Psychology degree would payoff one day!)

So you see, I was a bit hesitant to make this dish for The Husband’s birthday. But, I’m happy to report that even though this meal isn’t as straightforward and easy as the Kraft version, it is the best macaroni and cheese I have eaten to date. And that’s sayin’ something.

Zahra’s Mac and Cheese

1/2 lb short pasta (I used elbow macaroni)

1 tbsp butter
1/2 small onion, diced
1/4 cup flour
3 cups milk (I used 2%)
pinch of cayenne pepper if you’re feeling daring
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: Few sprigs of chives
About 3-4 cups grated sharp cheddar (or a combination of cheeses you have on hand)

1. Bring water to a boil and add in some salt for the pasta. You want to cook the pasta until al dente.

2. Turn on the heat to medium and melt a tablespoon of butter in a saucepan.

3. Dice the 1/2 of your onion.

4. Add the onions to the saucepan and let it caramelize, about 4-6 minutes.

5. Add in 1/4 cup flour.

6. Stir the mixture around until golden brown and about the texture of cooked oatmeal.

7. Pour in 2 cups of milk and whisk to combine.

8. As the mixture is coming to a boil, add in a pinch of cayenne pepper if you’re feeling daring.

9. By this point, the milk should be bubbling. Add in the last cup of milk and bring to a boil. Then, turn down the heat to a simmer until the mixture thickens.

10. Take your chives and mince ‘em.

Like so.

Also, take your cheeses and grate ‘em. I had some leftover swiss as well as my sharp cheddar so I used both.

11. Add the whole shabang into your saucepan. Turn off the heat and stir until incorporated.

12. Pour cheese sauce over your pasta and stir until all the macaroni is covered in cheesy goodness.

Dish out and serve! I also had some vegetarian meatballs that I heated and coated ever so lightly in the same cheese sauce.

Happy Birthday Neil!

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And I’m back! I wish I could say I’d gone somewhere, but I really have just been lazy and unmotivated to cook anything exceptionally blog-worthy. But this scrumptious casserole got me out of my boring rut!

So you know how usually casseroles are a smorgasbord of ingredients and yet with just one ooey-gooey flavor throughout? Don’t get me wrong, those are absolute delights, but sometimes you just want a nice hearty casserole-ish dish with every ingredient speaking for itself. This is that kinda casserole ladies and gentlemen!

Here’s what you need:

Potato and Portobello Casserole

2-3 medium sized potatoes, washed
1/2 diced onion
1 cap portobello mushroom
dash of soy sauce
1 tomato
1 cup of whatever cheese you have on hand (I used 2/3 cheddar and 1/3 swiss)
Optional: breadcrumbs

1. Start a pot of water and bring it to a boil. Slice the potatoes into 1/4″ slices and drop them into the boiling water. They need to boil for about 15-20 minutes or until they feel tender at the prick of a fork. At that point, drain the water out and cover with ice cold water, just to cool it down a bit for easier handling.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dice the tomatoes and line the bottom of your pan with them along with a drizzle of olive oil. I used a 9″ pie dish for this recipe but any dish of equal volume would be just fine. At about the same time, dice your half onion and slice your mushroom into 1/4″ slices. Add a dash of soy sauce on top of the mushrooms, it will seep in while you’re assembling your casserole.

3. Peel the skin off the potato slices and neatly place side-by-side on top of the tomatoes. Well, I didn’t do this so neatly, that was a lie. But wouldn’t it be nice if you did?!?

4. Arrange the portobello slices on top of the potato slices. Add the diced onions right on top.

5. Cover the whole thing with your cheeses and sprinkle some breadcrumbs if you so desire.

6. Bake, uncovered for 20-25 minutes. Remember, you want all your ingredients to keep their textures and flavors but harmonize with only the yummy cheeses! Remove and eat quickly!

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This is a public service announcement from your love handles, hips and thighs:
These are not low-fat. At all.

Well now that we have that out of the way, I will tell you that this was a super delicious version of the already-delicious pasta creation known as ravioli.

The first time I encountered fried ravioli was at my university’s “hip” eating spot (one out of two places that served food there) fondly known as The Pub. It was no pub fyi. The Pub had the most delicious cheese and spinach ravioli with a side of a house salad and a thick slice of garlic bread. When I stuck my fork into that first piece of ravioli, I was amazed at how incredibly crunchy it was. But man oh man, that was nothing compared to the taste. It was pasta cheesiness meets the miracle of a deep fryer.

Sadly, for some terrible reason, they took the ravioli off the menu. So I have had to resort to making my own versions and I must say, I’m not too shabby at it.

Fried Ravioli
*in loving memory of the spinach and cheese ravioli at The Pub

12 pieces of your favorite type of ravioli, prepared and cooled enough for comfortable handling
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
Enough oil to cover about 1/4″ of your fabulous saucepan

1. Prepare your ravioli beforehand. Turn on the stove to the medium-high setting and pour in the oil. While it’s heating, start preparing your ravioli.

2. Pour the milk into one small container, and the breadcrumbs into another. Hey! Remember these little Pyrex dishes?? I use them a lot. Start dunking the ravioli into the milk and then immediately coating it with the breadcrumbs.

3. Set aside in a dish. This way you can put them all into the saucepan at once.

4. Annnnd fry em! About 3 minutes on the first side should be plenty. Then, flip and fry for another 1.5 to 2 minutes.

5. Set on a paper towel-lined plate and then serve! You can dunk ‘em in ranch or marinara sauce, or enjoy it with a salad à la Pub. The sky is the limit.

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