Moghrabieh (Lebanese Couscous) Pilaf with Summer Squash, Sunchokes, Peas, Pistachios, Cherries, and Chermoula

Don’t let the long title fool you – although it sounds complicated, there’s nothing difficult or fussy about putting together this dish. 

Inspired by the pilafs my mom often made when we had guests over when I was younger, I took the idea of cooking the rice – or in this case, moghrabieh, aka Lebanese couscous (which I’ll get to in a second) – with a fragrant mixture of fennel, mint, toasted nuts, garlic, and bay leaves. But rather than use rice, I opted for a different grain to lend this dish a more Middle Eastern feel.

Butternut Blondies

I’ve never been a fan of blondies. They’re usually just overly sweet little blobs packed with white chocolate chunks (which I do not at all care for) and maybe some nuts. There’s no real flavor there, at least not in any of the blondies I’ve ever eaten to date, and, as a result, I’ve never been compelled to make my own.

That is, up until last week, when I somehow stumbled upon a recipe for butternut squash blondies. The recipe looked weird, though – strange proportions and the inclusion of those dreaded white chocolate chips – so I took the basic idea and set about crafting my own recipe.

Quinoa with Green Summer Vegetables and Herbed Yogurt Dressing

My fridge is overflowing with CSA produce – a result of having been out of town for many weekends in a row – and it is too hot to even think about how to creatively use it all, much less turn on the oven or have the stove turned on for longer than absolutely necessary.

As much as I love the crispness of raw summer produce – sugar snap peas, green beans, tender zucchini – sometimes you just want it to be cooked a little bit. However, heating up a pot of water to blanch green beans or using a skillet to sauté the zucchini would make our already-hot apartment even hotter and, after having blanched a few sets of vegetables last night (in addition to boiling pasta), I was not in the mood to have sweat dripping off my forehead and my shirt soaked through again tonight. And that’s where the microwave comes in.

Kabocha Squash (Pumpkin) Cheesecake with Graham-Lime-Walnut Crust

Pumpkin pie: people either love it or hate it. I, as a lover of all things pumpkin, obviously don’t hate it, but I am very picky about it. Most of them have a bad crust and the filling is usually too sweet and cinnamony (I really don’t like cinnamon). But if it’s made well, it’s oh so good.

A number of years ago, I very briefly worked at a fancy Chinese restaurant at which Pichet Ong was the pastry chef. I absolutely loved, and to this day, still do love, his Asian-inspired desserts. About a year after that, the New York Times printed a wonderful recipe of his a few weeks before Thanksgiving for a twist on the classic pumpkin pie: a Kabocha squash pie. Kabocha squash is among the sweetest varieties of squash (see this NYT article if you don’t believe me), so it lends itself perfectly to dessert. My favorite thing about it is its vibrant orange color - it's very Day-Glo-esqsue. Pichet's pie's filling contains the standard pumpkin pie spices, but is heavier on the ginger than the standard. The crust is perhaps the best part – it’s a graham cracker crust that’s perked up with ginger, lime, and walnuts. The addition of nuts make the crust rich and almost candy-like, and the flavor is just outstanding. Overall, it's a nice little Thai twist.

Pumpkin Tiramisu

Although my mom cooked our Thanksgiving lunch/dinner, I made dessert. Of course I had to make something pumpkin, because there’s some law somewhere that states that at least one Thanksgiving meal item must contain pumpkin, and since nothing my mom made contained pumpkin, the responsibility fell to me.

I was thinking about making pumpkin pie, but pumpkin cheesecake (actually, a kabocha squash cheesecake) is on the menu for our big gather in Saturday, so I didn’t want to eat the same (or similar) dessert twice in three days. At first I was planning on making pumpkin soufflés with bourbon whipped cream, but after running across a recipe for pumpkin zuccotto, I got an idea: pumpkin tiramisu.

Thai Curried Butternut Squash Soup

My mom’s birthday was this past Sunday, so, of course, I was compelled to make her a great dinner. I admit that sometimes I get a little carried away and make elaborate four-course meals that take hours to make, but this time, I decided to make simple comfort foods that my mom loves, albeit refined versions of them.

First up: a butternut squash soup with a Thai inflection. 

Butternut Squash, Leek, and Chickpea Stew with Lemon-Parsley Couscous

This past weekend was another one that found me away from Baltimore. The bf’s friend invited us to his parents’ cottage in PA to go skiing, and, seeing as how I had never been, we jumped at the offer. We drove to PA Friday night, skied in the morning and afternoon, drove to DC in the early evening to go to my brother’s place to help him celebrate his birthday (for which I made an awesome cake which will be posted here in a few days), and then back to Baltimore late Saturday night. Not only did I not cook this past weekend, but I ate horrible food on Saturday – a frozen personal pizza for lunch and trail mix and Combos for dinner. Gross, I know. I can’t wait to get back into the kitchen this week and make some food that is not only real, but also really good.

I made this stew a few weeks ago – it was inspired by this recipe that a friend of mine had made a few weeks back. I wanted my version to be more hearty and less gratin-like, so I decided to add chickpeas and lentils to it. 

Israeli Couscous with Kale, Butternut Squash, and White Beans

It's very obvious that I haven’t been home much in the past few weeks. Between going to my parents’ house for the weekend of Christmas and then back up to NYC the following weekend for New Year’s Eve, I’ve barely been home. And that means that I haven’t gone grocery shopping and that I kind of sort of have the same things in my fridge that have been there the past two weeks. (Thankfully such things last a long time in the fridge.) 

I came home from work tonight and realized that I had slim pickings in the fridge, but I refused to order food because I’ve been eating out for the past 5 days and I couldn’t bring myself to do so yet again. 

White Bean, Kale, and Butternut Squash Pizza

I’ve always liked the combination of white beans, kale, and butternut squash, but I’ve only seen it as a stew – kind of boring. My recent culinary solution to everything is pizza, so I figured that these ingredients would be great on a pizza.

I made a version of this a few weeks ago, and while it was good, it wasn’t quite right. I thought about it for a while, came up with a solution, and, being the easily distracted person I am,never got around to it. Well, I finally did the other night, and this second version of it is really really good. All of the flavors shine – nothing gets lost like it might in a stew. And it’s a pizza. Who doesn’t like pizza? (Weird people, that’s who.)

Maple, Coriander, and Pomegranate Glazed Acorn Squash

This is another side dish I served for my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. I had a lot of fun with taking traditional Thanksgiving ingredients and putting a twist on them. In this one, acorn squash (which I think is boring) gets a sweet, tart, and smoky glaze: the rich maple syrup keeps things traditional, and the pomegranate molasses and coriander provide a great foil to the sweetness of the syrup.

Marinated Zucchini with Basil

This past Sunday at the market, I noticed that the stand next to my tomato purveyor of choice had tons of zucchini and squash on the cheap: they were selling baskets of 4-6 of them at 3 for $5, so I got one basket each of green zucchini, yellow zucchini, and summer squash. I had a lot of zucchini on my hands; actually, they were technically on my boyfriend’s hands because he was kindly serving as my shopping cart. (Side note: do not expect your boyfriend to be amused when you hand him a 3-ish-pound bag of zucchini when he’s already carrying well over 10 pounds of produce and it’s 90 degrees outside and you’re at the insanely crowded Baltimore Farmer’s market.)