Category Archives: All blog posts

Butternut, Gorgonzola, and Walnut Cavatappi

If you were to assemble a grocery list of classic fall ingredients, you just may start with butternut squash, gorgonzola cheese, and toasted walnuts. Pumpkin would make the cut for me, as would Honeycrisp apples, and brussels sprouts. I’d need a little prosciutto and definitely some fresh sage.

It doesn’t take much to usher a new season into your kitchen. But this dish will do it with panache. The flavors blend beautifully and you’ll taste fall in every bite.

As for me, I’ll be pouring a glass of red wine, taking my plate outside, and persuading my husband to build a fire in the firepit. Bring it, October.

 

Butternut, Gorgonzola, and Walnut Cavatappi

Adapted from Cooking Light

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

4 cups (1/2 inch) cubed, peeled butternut squash ( 1.25 pounds or buy it precut to save time!)
2 1/2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
Cooking Spray
8 ounces uncooked cavatappi (other pasta will work but these are so cute!)
1 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup 2%  milk, divided
1 teaspoon flour
2 large egg yolks
1/3 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese (you can use blue if you prefer)
3 tablespoons chopped walnuts, toasted
Fresh Italian parsley for garnish

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 425°.

2.  Combine squash, 1 1/2 teaspoons oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 425° for 25 minutes or until tender, stirring once.

3.  Cook the pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.  Drain pasta; keep warm.

4.  Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add remaining 1 teaspoon oil to pan; swirl to coat.  Add onion and garlic; saute 3 minutes.  Reduce heat to medium-low.  Stir in 1/2 cup milk, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper.  Combine remaining 1/2 cup milk, flour and yolks in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.  Slowly add egg mixture to pan, stirring constantly with a whisk.  Cook 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently with a whisk.

5.  Combine squash, pasta, and milk mixture in a large bowl; toss gently to coat.  Sprinkle with cheese and nuts. Garnish with parsley.

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Seared Scallops with White Beans and Spinach

As you learned in my last post, we’ve been singing the Little Mermaid soundtrack around here for weeks now, so maybe that’s why I have seafood on the brain. Four hundred renditions of “Les Poissions” and “Under the Sea” will do that to a girl. But you just might thank me, because these Seared Scallops are to-die-for.

You’ll cook this dish in two steps – first the white beans and spinach and then the scallops which go on top. The end result is warm and rich with flavor (thanks, bacon!) and yet takes less than 10 minutes to prepare. Top that!

Seared Scallops with White Beans and Spinach

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 strips lean bacon, chopped into small pieces
1/2 red onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cans white beans (14 oz each) rinsed and drained
4 cups baby spinach
1 lb large sea scallops
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon butter
Juice of 1 lemon

Directions

1.  Heat a medium saucepan over low heat.  Cook the bacon until it has begun to crisp.  Add the onion and garlic; saute until the onion is soft and translucent, 2 to 3 minutes.  Add the white beans and spinach and simmer until the beans are hot and the spinach is wilted.  Keep warm.

2.  Heat a large cast-iron skillet or saute pan over medium-high heat.  Blot the scallops dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper on both sides.  Add the butter and the scallops to the pan and sear the scallops for 2 or 3 minutes per side, until deeply caramelized.

3.  Before serving, add the lemon juice to the beans.  Season with salt and pepper.  Divide the beans among 4 warm bowls or plates and top with scallops.

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Preparing to Win…and Preparing to Lose

My daughter has an audition this afternoon for her school’s spring theater production. Musical theater is her nine-year-old-heart’s desire and as such, she’s been talking about this audition since the closing night of last spring’s play.

They’re doing The Little Mermaid Jr. this year, and while as a fourth grader in a K-8 school she’s certainly not auditioning for the lead, she has her heart set on a specific part and has put plenty of blood, sweat, and tears into preparing the lines and song that will determine whether or not she gets the role.

I love to see my daughter setting a goal and going for it.  I love to see her putting in that much effort. I love to see her competing to win and envisioning herself in that costume on that stage in front of that audience. But the audition puts me in a quandary as a parent.

Because at the end of the day, her best may not be enough. Those who prepare and do their best DON’T always win.

The soccer star who practices every evening may not win the game.  The spelling bee participant who studies every week may not bring home the trophy. The well run campaign may not get the candidate into office. The perfect resume may not land the applicant the dream job. There are factors well beyond the individual’s control at play in each scenario and those factors affect the outcome.

Believe me when I say that I am an advocate of hard work and steadfast effort. And that I love winning. Really, I do. But there are lessons to be learned both in victory and in defeat and the fact remains that in a well-lived life, we’ll all experience both.

So, last night during a walk, I gave my daughter a version of the speech my mom always gave me before a competition. “Be prepared to win, so you’ll be a humble victor. But be prepared to lose, so you’ll be gracious in defeat.”

I’m not sure which is harder, frankly – victory or defeat. We prepared for both outcomes with equal care, because being prepared is half the battle. Envisioning herself as both the winner and the loser will help her handle each situation with equal aplomb.

First, we talked through examples of what it might look like to be a humble victor.

  • Where should she go immediately after finding out she got the part to celebrate in private without hurting any feelings in the process?
  • Whom could she tell right away – who could hear her news without a shred of envy? (e.g. a friend not involved with the play!)
  • What might she say to lift up a classmate who DIDN’T get a part?
  • How would she respond if someone were to congratulate her?
  • How could she show gratitude to the director or her voice coach?
  • In what ways could she shine a light on someone else’s “win” that day to pay it forward?

Then, we talked about what it would look like to be gracious in defeat.

  • Could she take a friend not involved with the play with her when she went to see the cast list so she’d have a hand to hold?
  • Could she carve out a little time and space to accept the decision before she had to talk to anyone else about it?
  • Could she offer sincere congratulations to the classmates who did get a part, remembering how it feels to be on the receiving end of those congratulations at other times?
  • Could she accept a smaller part or be in the chorus with a smile on her face and a willingness to learn?
  • Most importantly, could she trust that when one door closes, another one opens, and that no matter what she should hold onto her love for singing and acting!

I emphasized that what matters to me is not whether she gets the part or not; it’s that she had the courage to try. Because let’s face it, standing up and singing in front of an auditorium full of people is not something most adults would sign up to do. Auditioning alone would scare most of us away. And then to have the cast list posted on a door in the cafeteria for all our peers to see…I mean please. Bravery, through and through. For that, I give her all the credit in the world.

It’s like Theodore Roosevelt said in this excerpt from a speech he delivered in 1910:

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

It’s a good reminder for all of us.

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