Rigatoni with Sausage and Butternut Squash
Over my twenty years of doing The Amateur Gourmet, I’ve been approached by fans a handful of times. Usually the exchange is quick and pleasant: I feel a thrill for being recognized and hopefully they feel a thrill for meeting their favorite nerdy, gay, old-school food blogger. However the exchange goes, I’m always on the same side of it; until a few months ago when the roles reversed and I fan-girled out over meeting my favorite food influencer, Hailee Catalano.
Marbled Pumpkin Bread
There’s are certain cheats that are universally acknowledged as acceptable by food people and one of them is that it’s totally fine to use canned pumpkin in place of fresh pumpkin in baking recipes. I realize a lot of you are rolling your eyes at that: “Who in their right mind would ever trouble to use fresh pumpkin in a baking recipe?” Well you’re talking to someone who did just that, only it was a Kabocha squash.
Spicy Fennel and Squash Soup with Candied Pepitas and Balsamic Pears
Garnishes are a game-changer when it comes to a pureed soup. What could pass easily as baby food, becomes something much more substantial and more interesting to eat when you add lots of little bobs and bits. I’ve noticed, when I’ve gone out to fancier meals, that pureed soups are almost always presented as a separate entity from the garnishes: you receive a bowl with lots of stuff in it and then a waiter pours the soup on top. Why can’t we do the same thing at home? I’m here to tell you that you can.
Mustardy Chicken Thighs with Farro, Brown Butter Squash, Kale, and Bacon
Last night I was in the weeds: it was five o’clock, we had dinner guests coming at seven, and I had eight chicken thighs, a bag of farro, two Delicata squash, kale, and some bacon. Two Google searches later — one that landed me on a Thomas Keller recipe for Farro and Black Rice with Roasted Autumn Squash, one that landed me on Lidey Heuck’s Baked Chicken Thighs — I had a plan and I was off to the races.
Seared Butternut Squash with Crispy Curried Chickpeas
Some married people cheat when their husbands go out for the evening; I eat chickpeas.
Craig doesn’t like chickpeas. He’ll eat them if they’re ground into a hummus, but presented in its original form, he’d almost rather eat anything else. I, on the other hand, adore them for their versatility: you can stew them, you can roast them, or — as in the case here — you can fry them in oil, add lots of aromatics and spices, and serve them over butternut squash.
