sausage – The Kitchen Illiterate

Pasta with Sausage and Lentils

Today it is rainy and grey and cold in Walla Walla, and I think I have to accept that it is well and truly fall. That’s not so bad, though, because I still have a huge bowl of tomatoes on my kitchen counter, and also, I really love fall. It is my favorite season. The air is crisp, and usually smells a little like wood smoke. The clothes are fantastic, all sweaters and wool and light scarves. And the food, well. I love summer produce, but I really love fall food. Bring on the slow cooked meats and roasted squash and hearty, warm comfort food.
Continue reading Pasta with Sausage and Lentils

Mushroom Sausage Puffs

I love puff pastry. I consider it a culinary wonder. But it’s not exactly something you can have for dinner every night, and most of the uses to which puff pastry can be put fall firmly in the appetizer category. So I relish the opportunity to make appetizers for dinner parties, and I was given just that opportunity this past weekend. Our awesome friends Stan and Charity hosted a dinner party and invited me, Mr. X, and some kind of pre-dinner treat, so I decided to throw together these.

They are very similar to the Mushroom and Goat Cheese Triangles I have made for several dinner parties in the past, but I wanted to do something a little different, a little more substantial. So sausage it is! And frankly, I think they are much better for it.
Continue reading Mushroom Sausage Puffs

Stuffed Squash galore: Carnivale and Delicata

You might be wondering where the heck my Thanksgiving posts are, and why I didn’t share any perfect recipes for the big day before hand. Honestly, I’m wondering that myself, and all I can do is blame the fact that I am still a grad student and am nearing the end of the semester, and it’s enough that I manage to eat things besides frozen Trader Joe’s burritos. I did make Thanksgiving dinner this year, for the first time, and it was great! And I even have pictures. But who knows how long it will take me to get those photos off my camera and into this blog, so in the meantime, I wanted to share something else I’ve been eating a lot of lately: stuffed squash.

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you’ve probably realized that, come fall, I get a little obsessed with squash. I have made southwestern-style stuffed acorn squash, a pancetta bechamel-stuffed spaghetti squash, and man, lately I just can’t seem to stay away from butternut squash. And in the space of two weeks recently I made three different types of stuffed squash.
Continue reading Stuffed Squash galore: Carnivale and Delicata