Fall Cooking: Collards & Butternut Squash

They looked so orange-y and fall-ish, so I bought a 2-lb container of diced butternut squash.  Disregard the fact that I wasn't sure what it tasted like or how to cook it.

I also bought a big bag of cut collard greens because I forgot that I already had a bag at home and I decided I had a taste for greens.  So I found myself with butternut squash and collards and no plans for either.  I don’t like to let food go to waste, so I figured I could somehow cook them together in one pot.  It felt like my own, personal episode of Chopped!

I checked my pantry and found a bag of lentils and figured, since there were no definite plans for that either, I’d throw that in the mix, too.  And let me tell you – it all came together deliciously. It took about an hour and a half, but only about 20 minutes of active, standing at the stove time. The rest of the time you can wash dishes, fold clothes, or go catch up on The Voice.  And since it’s all pre-cut, there’s very little prep. (You can of course, use a whole squash or cut your collards, if you’d like.)

Here you go.  I wish I was better at coming up with names for stuff, but I’m not, so it's just...

Collards & Butternut Squash

Ingredients

Butter

½ onion, diced

½ bag lentils

1 lb diced butternut squash

1 lb chopped collard greens

Vegetable bouillon cube

Water

Seasoning: black pepper, salt, red pepper flakes, coriander

Note: Add seasonings through-out to taste.  Feel free to leave out the red pepper if you don’t like pepper-y food.

Cook

In a large stock pot, melt a tablespoon of butter.

Add lentils. Stir and keep an eye on it, for about 5 minutes, until they get an almost nutty scent.

Add chopped onions, mix together, then continue to cook while onions soften.

Add the squash and seasoning, mix together and let cook a few minutes.

Add greens, mix into other ingredients.

Add bouillon cube and mix in with ingredients until dissolved.  Add seasoning.

Pour in 6 cups of water and stir all together.

Let cook on medium flame for about an hour or until squash is soft.

Serve as a side-dish or as a standalone meal, over rice or with naan or other flatbread. 

Enjoy!

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Orange Your Way into Fall

If you didn't notice the black spider webs and bags of candy corn shelved next to the end-of-summer pool toys and school supplies - it's almost Halloween.  Well, almost, if you are one of the millions of folks who will participate in some kind of Halloween activity and spend almost $7 billion for all the fun. (Yes, with a "b" - that was last year's spending, according to Forbes - and they know how to spell "billion.")  Doesn't it seem that the Halloween prep starts earlier and earlier each year?  I guess if the farmer's could get the pumpkins to grow earlier, we'd be carving jack-o-lanterns at the 4th of July picnic.

Other than the candy (bring on the chocolate!), I'm not a big fan of the holiday.  Basically, because it's scary and spooky. And carving pumpkins is messy and difficult.  But the theme colors - orange and black - are pretty.  So if you're like me, and peeking through one eye open until November 1, here's a few ways to enjoy the color of the season, without all the ghouls and mess.

Decorate with mums.  I can't grow anything, but I love flowers. Potted plants are the solution.  I'm sad when they finally wilt away, but I love the burst of color while the flowers are still in bloom.  The bright fall mums are the obvious choice for front steps or a flower arrangement inside.

Go to a farm for pick-your-own fields.  The kids and I enjoy picking our own whatevers - fruit, flowers, berries.  If you're lucky, there may still be farms with a few apples left, great for applesauce, apple pie, apple cake, caramel apples.  Of course, you can pick up the biggest, fattest pumpkin for carving and pumpkin seeds - or several little ones for a pretty table setting.  If you're lucky, there may even be a corn maze in your area and the kids can get lost for an hour or so (in a good way.)

Make orange jack-o-lanterns. Skip the carving and scooping and "what do we do with all the inside guck?"  Get a bag of oranges and a black Sharpie and let the kids decorate oranges as little teeny jack-o-lanterns.  Quick, easy, not messy. Fun to throw in the kids' lunchbox or sports snack bag.

Easy to make and cute for the lunchbox.

Crochet or knit in orange.  Mother Nature tells us without a doubt that orange is the color for the season.  Even if you think you don't like orange - it's a nice wake-me-up color to wear when it's dark when you get out of bed and dark on your way home.  Grab a skein of your favorite yarn - wool, silk, cotton - the season is just fickle enough that almost any weight will work and stitch yourself up a cute little scarf or hat.

An asymmetrical triangle-shapped scarf, made from a light-weight sock yarn.

Bake pumpkin-y goodness. Pie, bread, muffins. Even the seeds make a tasty treat.  On my list is a Pumpkin Cake Cheesecake that I noticed on another site - Sally's Baking Addiction.  There's pumpkin, there's cheesecake. Yum. Add a cup of creamy coffee. Wrap up in my new orange scarf.  Hey - it's fall!

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