November 2012

There were 2 posts published in November 2012.

squash roundup

buttercup squash, ready for roasting

Thanksgiving was great. We are now into a two-year “routine” where we go to Kate and Ned’s and spend the day with them and some of Ned’s family. It’s terrific and relaxing and I enjoy it. For whatever reason this year I’ve been cooking squash like it was going out of style. Partly it’s because I’ve been eating out less but partly it’s because I just got sick of soup. Squash, as it turns out, is delicious. So I’m now one of those women who finds recipes on The Pioneer Woman and passes them around. I’m not proud. Here are the recipes I have been making. If you’re squash-curious but don’t know where to start or never really get past the stuffed acorn meals, this is for you.

Acorn – stuffed squash with brown rice and sausage (my photo)
Buttercup – twice baked buttercup squash OR buttercup squash casserole (my photo, another photo)
Butternut – red pepper and butternut soup OR roasted beet and butternut soup (my photo)
Carnival – quinoa stuffed carnival squash (my photo)
Delicata – maple glazed squash rings (my photo)
Golden Acorn – topsy turvy stuffed squash (my photo)
Spaghetti – baked spaghetti squash with garlic sage cream OR simple spaghetti squash parmesan (my photo)

I haven’t braved the giant lumpy hubbard squash yet since I am usually just feeding me and maybe one other person. Now that I’m back in Vermont after holidaytime I may see if the farmer’s market has anything outside this usual suspects list. Oh and the Frontier Woman recipe I made? Not squash at all but something called Crash Hot Potatoes (my photo, looks the same, doesn’t it?). Simple.

as the sun goes down, here we are

apples!

Apple season is the best. I think if I were forced to choose between “apple season” and “autumn” I might go with the apples. Fortunately, I don’t really have to choose and that’s good news. Here is a gallery of some of the apples I’ve gotten to sample around here in the past few years.

Two big pieces of news here. The first is that I’ve actually gotten me and my healing ankle back to the gym over the past few weeks which is doing wonders for my mood. While I think the mandatory ankle-inspired slowdown was maybe not a bad thing, I’m very happy to be scooting around at my regular pace again. Being able to ride a bike and swim laps and still be able to walk okay afterwards is happymaking and especially before the winter comes. Now that daylight saving time has passed, the sun sets over the nearby hill at about 3:30 and I’ve lost all momentum by about the time I start mod-work at about six pm. Exercise helps.

The other odd piece of news is that I’m now an elected official in Randolph, Vermont. I’m now an elected Justice of the Peace along with eleven other people. I start February 1st. Yes, I can marry people. I also help out with elections and tax abatement hearings and not too much else. I can become a notary. I can get a special stamp. I started a little blog about it if you are curious about Justice of the Peace-ery, as I am. Basically once I started traveling significantly less for work, I wanted to do something here in the town that I love so much. And I’m pretty mouthy about people’s civic obligations to one another, so this is me walking the talk. I wasn’t really expecting to win, truth be told, and yeah I’m not really entirely a Democrat but it’s significantly more of a pain to run as an independent, so here we are. I’m excited and interested and we’ll see how it goes, as with most things.