thoughtful consumption

First the bad news…

I forgot the eggplant in the oven again. “I’ll just turn the oven off and leave them in there for a little longer,” I said. Ha! That’s the recipe for Abandoned Eggplant.

So, no baba ghanoush for me this week.

The good news…

Last night we had a nice fall supper in two courses starring mushrooms and acorn squash. (It’s in two courses because the acorn squash needed more time in the oven. From now on, I’m counting on at least an hour even for the little ones.)

For the first course we had mushroom fettuccine with honey lemon cream sauce based on this recipe. It tasted fresh and delicious, but the lemon juice was a little strong – maybe because I only had 2 cups of mushrooms instead of 4. No real complaints, though, and we wiped our plates clean with some bread. I meant to add some fresh basil from the garden but forgot.

First course: Fettuccine in mushroom lemon cream sauce

I considered trying Noodles with Mushrooms and Lemon Ginger Dressing. It sounds really good, but I didn’t think the Asian style would match the acorn squash.

Second course: Baked acorn squash with butter and maple syrup

It tastes like fall! This method of making winter squash is so easy and good. The only problem is I usually forget to add the water at the bottom of the pan. That makes the outer part of the flesh is a little dry.

Green bean casserole

I made a green bean casserole last night with the wax beans. Since it’s for tonight’s supper, I wasn’t planning to bake it last night, but when I cranked up the oven for the acorn squash, I figured it was better to get it done.

I followed Paula Deen’s recipe pretty much. I put in extra onions instead of chopped mushrooms. And I rinsed out the soup can with some of the white wine I used for the mushroom pasta. The recipe calls for boiling the beans in chicken broth and then draining them. But that makes it sound like you pour the broth down the sink! That seems kind of lame. So I kept the broth and tried to cook the mixture down before baking.

The results still look a little soupy, but I’m hoping it won’t be a problem.

If I was more familiar with green bean casserole, I might have considered using the oyster mushrooms and the farmhouse cheddar on top – Gourmet Green Bean Casserole! But it seemed like a waste. I figure when a recipe calls for a can of cream of mushroom soup, it’s not going to be about subtle flavors and fresh tastes.

Speaking of the farmhouse cheddar, it’s really yummy. We had slices on Triscuits with apple wedges for lunch yesterday. For lunch today, I’m going to heat up some tomato soup and grate some of the cheddar on top. By tomato soup, I mean a can of V-8. I can’t stand it cold, but heated up with cheese is good! And I’ll have one of the last peach muffins, too.

More plans

The green bean casserole will go well with the field peas for a couple of meals. I still have tomatoes, too. I may slice up the round ones and make another cucumber-tomato salad. The rest of them will get cooked with garlic and served on pasta or bread along with what’s left of the pesto.

I bought some chevre from Kroger to make crostini again and use up the pesto and the Asian pear. I’ll be interested to taste the difference.