Kaki!

Fall.  Is.  Happening.

Acorn squash!  Soup!  Gingerbread!

So it still gets up to 85-degrees here, so what?  It’s a new season of tasty things I haven’t eaten in a year and I am all about it. Here’s what I’ve been making these days:

Mac-N-Cheese in Acorn Squash

Girl, have you made mac-n-cheese from scratch?  It’s way easier than I thought it would be.  It’s a white roux, plus milk, plus cheese.  Then you add some mustard and some other flavors.  Add noodles. That’s it.

Except of course I took it about four steps further, because I cannot leave anything alone.  I added 8 ounces of frozen (thawed and squeezed dry) spinach to the sauce, which is something I will definitely repeat.  I roasted acorn squash to serve as an edible bowl, which was tasty, though the texture between the roasted squash and the noodles was a little too similar.  I mixed Parmesan and panko breadcrumbs together and added them in the last 10 minutes of baking to the top of the whole mess.  That was a good choice their crunch added much needed texture to the dish.

Best part, though?  I made this at Cooper’s, and at the last minute we added some of this garlic-y bread dipping seasoning she had in her pantry (not that exact brand, but similar).  It made it, just amped up the flavor tenfold.

Split-Pea Soup

I’d never had split-pea soup before, Kaki.  But Elissa Altman mentioned it in her memoir as a really tasty and yet, er, cost-effective recipe, so obviously I had to try it.  I’m really glad I did, this soup is tasty.  But a couple of notes: this soup is mostly about the ham.  Great flavor, but it’d be hard to de-meat this particular recipe.  Also, it was really not that tasty just after I finished making it, but the next day it was way, way tastier.  I’m used to soups tasting better after a day or so, but this was a drastic improvement.

Gingerbread Cake Cookies

Tasty.  Really tasty.  The dough had a ton of molasses flavor, almost too much, but it mellowed a lot after baking.  Even so, these were just shy of what I was looking for.  I’m going to try this Drunken Molasses Ginger Cookie recipe next and see if it has that elusive, “This is it!” quality I’m looking for.

What have you been making lately, my dear?  Do tell. 🙂

Happy Monday,

Caitlin