I had an impulse buy in the grocery store this week – I picked up a can of organic butternut squash puree. I had no idea what I would do with it. After assessing the other impulse buys in my pantry, I decided to pair the squash with some orecchiette pasta.

My husband normally doesn’t care too much for the squash/pasta dinners I’ve tried in the past… or squash used as a sauce (chicken and pumpkin enchiladas I made a few years ago is one of the few meals he’s actually turned down!). He did, however, enjoy this recipe!

The squash makes the pasta a little sweet, but it’s not an overpowering taste. The onions, garlic and rosemary balance the sweetness a bit, and the ricotta I added to the squash makes it a little creamier. I would probably prefer this made as a side dish (maybe served with chicken breast?), just because there’s not enough flavor complexity here to really hold my interest for an entire meal. But we all know I’m a finnicky eater I highly recommend using orecchiette if you have it at your grocery store – it’s a neat little pasta and works great with non-marinara type sauces!

Goodbye winter and cold weather squash – I’ll miss you!

I decided to try a variant of this with asparagus, as this vegetable is showing up in markets quite heavily as spring begins to roll in. While not as tasty as the original recipe, I like how the reduction works with this vegetable. There is plenty of liquid, which I sopped with couscous, but consider this as optional.

Oh well! I’ll do the best I can? How about a sweet picture of my pup as a peace offering?

Finding myself in a bit of a dinner slump after finishing my midterms at school last week lead me back to my trusty “Great Food Fast” cookbook by Martha Stewart (If you haven’t entered her contest yet to win a free new book, click here!). I flipped to the winter section before spring is upon us, and I found some great recipes I hadn’t made before.

I’ve made her Moroccan Chicken Couscous twice this week – once to test it out and play around and then later in the week to bring to a friends house. This is a great meal to turn to if you want something healthy, light, relatively fast and easy and flavorful without heat (for spice-wary people like Edwin!).

I only made some relatively minor tweeks because things are pretty good! I did change the ratio of things a bit, added more veggies and changed the proportions to serve 2 (with leftovers) or 3.

Inspired by the weather, I ventured out to the Falls Church Farmers Market on Saturday, which has actually been open since January. Props to that. There’s something calming about Farmers Markets; centering. Scores of people walking about just talking, sampling food; no rush, no place they have to be. It’s just a contrast from the usual everyday life in DC where actually forget about how much stress and urgency we’re practically swimming in.

With us being on the tale end of winter, I honed in on the root vegetables; beets, leeks, potatoes… and a few apples of course (huuuuge Fuji’s. yum!) The leeks ended up in a nice simple, but delicious potato leek soup and I have visions of a small batch of borscht for the beets. The potatoes, yukon golds to be exact, had their own destiny.

A very smart person once said that the secret to good food is to use fresh ingredients and do very little to them. While it’s easy to to consider the potato as nothing more than bland, there is an essence of flavor somewhere and simplicity is the best way to draw that out. Local fresh is key here. Potatoes start with a rather thin skin when just yanked out of the ground and this thing tends to get thicker as the months roll by (which I can promise you is happening with spuds at your local megamart). When looking for potatoes at your local market, look for paper thin and you won’t be disappointed. Then, toss with a bit of oil, some salt and pepper and then whatever herbs you may like (fresh if you got em but dried if you don’t).

To promote its release, Everyday Food is holding a contest:

Tell us why you love Everyday Food in 150 words or less, along with the title of your favorite Everyday Food recipe, and submit your entry between February 15, 2010, and March 15, 2010, and you could be one of 20 lucky winners.

Include your complete name, address, telephone number, and email address. Online entries can be emailed to edfcontest@marthastewart.com, or mail your entry with your full name, address, phone number, and email address to:

Alison Sickelka
Assistant Editor, Online
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
601 West 26th Street, 9th Floor
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Also, click here for a sample of recipes from the new book!

They smelled great while baking and out of the oven, and the bread is awesome served warm. I tried another slice this morning with breakfast (cause let’s face it, sometimes things taste different when it’s not fresh out of the oven!), and it was still great. At one point I did feel like something was missing that I couldn’t quite place – maybe a little too much flour, maybe a little too much oil, maybe not enough pumpkin flavor.. I’m not sure! But today I didn’t feel that way, so maybe I like the bread best after it has ’set.’

Will this recipe replace my longtime favorite pumpkin bread recipe? I’m not sure… maybe I’ll have to do a side-by-side comparison. What vegan bread should I try next?

It’s time to spice it up here at DinnerCakes again. Edwin and I have decided the usual schedule is stifling our creativity, and we’d like some more flexibility to share new ideas, adventures and experiments with you.

We want to be more healthful (yeah, even me!), which means sometimes doing less with better ingredients. We want to tell you about farmer’s markets and what we find there. We’d like to take more photos and show you more interesting, quality shots. We want to share ideas with you and find out more about what works for you! And judging from last week’s yogurt discussion, it sounds like you all enjoy the chance to be heard!

So we’re throwing the old schedule out the window – we hope you like what you find and that you’ll continue to share your thoughts, tips and ideas with us!

Your kitchen compadres,
Chef Edwin & Heather – Ghost Baker

My friend Lindsey is a fellow connoisseur of food and on occasion we like to visit new (to us) restaurant in the area; usually brunch because brunch friggin’ rocks. Good food and good conversation with a good friend always makes for an enjoyable Sunday. A few weeks ago we took a trip to Founding Farmers Market in Northwest DC that she had heard good things about. The decor and environment were very nice; very subdued considering the close proximity some of the two-seat tables were. Under Lindsey’s insistence we ordered the hot chocolate and yeast doughnut holes. Both quite good. I usually find vegetarian brunch options somewhat limited once you filter out your usual suspects of pancakes, waffles, etc, but was pleased to find a delicious Florentine eggs Benedict dish with leek hash. The egg dish was fabulous and the hollaindaise sauce was the best I’ve ever had. The leek hash? Not so good. Couldn’t even taste the leeks, but rather just some burnt potato scraps. Still an excellent experience and I recommend Founding Farmers Market for breakfast.