Nothing funny about feldspar

This is one I made up when I had a *ton* of leftover roasted butternut squash. It is autumn, after all!

About 2 cups roasted butternut squash, smashed up
About 2 ounces of crumbled blue cheese (say maybe a ¼ cup)
About a teaspoon of dried sage
pepper and a little salt (not too much, the cheese can be salty)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Blend everything together, and put into a small, greased casserole. Sprinkle panko breadcrumbs on top. Bake for 30 minutes or so (it’s pretty flexible — I started in a 400°F oven and then reduced the temperature, and it could probably come out as soon as it gets heated through).

I think this would be an excellent make-ahead dish for Thanksgiving. I hope I remember it!

3/4 lb ground turkey
4 Tbsp Korean BBQ sauce (jarred stuff we got from the local pan-Asian grocery)
1 tsp chopped garlic
(some lemon-garlic seasoning we had laying about)

Mush together everything, make 6 small patties and put on a oiled (or sprayed) broiler pan. Put in the fridge until the rice is mostly done. Preheat the broiler. Broil until done, maybe 5-6 minutes per side.

Serve on top of the rice, with an extra 2-4 TB (heated) Korean BBQ sauce drizzled on top.

I served it with a side of stewed tomatoes, but you might prefer some slivered carrots, etc.

Straightforward, slightly sweet, but tasty enough to repeat.

I made up this recipe to use up some 90% chocolate that we had that nobody wanted to eat outright.

• 3.5 oz. (100g or 1 bar) of 90% chocolate (we had a Polish chocolate)
• 2 oz. (1/2 bar) of 60% chocolate (Ghiradelli)
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 4 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• about 1/2 lb pecan halves, lightly toasted and cooled
• 1 pie shell (I used the Pillsbury refrigerated one.)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Distribute the pecan halves evenly in the pie shell.

Melt the chocolates with the butter and the milk in a largish saucepan over low heat. When the chocolate is mostly melted, add the sugar and flour and heat and stir until the dry bits are gone. Turn off the heat and beat in the egg yolks until they are well incorporated, and then mix in the vanilla. Pour over the pecans in the pie shell. Some pecans will float, others will sink. This is OK.

Bake at 350°F for about 40 minutes.

Serve after cooling a bit (at least 30 minutes). You could add ice cream or whipped cream if you insist, but it really doesn’t need it.

Result: a not-too-sweet and not-too-rich slice of chocolate-pecan heaven. It’s denser than a pudding pie, but not as dense as a cheesecake. The normally harsh high-cacao chocolate gets mellowed just enough by the milk and butter so it just tastes very chocolatey without burning the skin off of your mouth. All in all very successful.

Now I’ve got to get more of that 90% chocolate…

Just on spec I got Glorious One-Pot Meals by Elizabeth Yarnell from the library. It seems to be a new edition of a book from 2005. The basic premise is that you layer all of the components of your meal in a small- to medium-sized Dutch oven, and bake at high heat for 45 minutes or so.

Given that I’m all about easy cooking, I of course tried to find a recipe that I wanted to immediately make. Unfortunately, I didn’t find one. Many sounded OK, but most were not compelling.

However, the idea appeals to me — put a bunch of stuff in a pot, and in less than an hour dinner’s ready? I’m all over it.

So yesterday I decided to be inspired by the recipes in the book. Here’s the plan:

• Coat the pot and lid with olive oil. (we actually have a larger Dutch oven than recommended, but it still worked)
• Sprinkle chopped garlic in the bottom.
• Place about 1/2 of a bag of pre-washed spinach in the pot
• Place 3 (frozen) tilapia “loins” (that’s what Trader Joe’s called ‘em)
• Salt and pepper
• Slice 1/2 a lemon a put on top of the fish
• Chop up a scallion and scatter it over the fish
• Place the rest of the spinach
• Pour a (14ish oz) can of diced tomatoes over the spinach
• Slice 2/3 yellow sweet pepper and scatter over the top
• More salt and pepper
• Cover the pot with the lid — make sure it is closed.
• Bake in a preheated 450°F oven for 45-50 minutes.

The one difference is that I didn’t put the starch in the pot. I made Jasime rice in the rice cooker, and it was done about the same time as the fish.

It worked out really, really well. Everyone liked it, and it was a nice change from our onion+bacon with curry.

Next time, I’ll try the method with some sort of potato in the bottom.

1 part rice (cooked). This is the “leftover” part.
1.5 parts milk.
1/4 part sugar.

(typically “part” = “cup” but not always)

Stir together and heat in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the milk is mostly absorbed. This can take quite a while — 30-45 minutes, even. You don’t want the milk to boil very much if at all.

Remove from heat, and stir in about 1/2 teaspoon vanilla for each cup of rice (or to taste).

Serve warm, with cinnamon sprinkled on top.