Oct 14, 2013

autumn stuffed acorn squash


Autumn Stuffed Acorn Squash Printer-Friendly Recipe
(coming)



My youngest daughter loves stuffed acorn squash. As it happens, Autumn is the best time of year to indulge in this winter delicacy. We have enjoyed this orange fruit stuffed and baked with apples, cinnamon and brown sugar. This is wonderful as a holiday side dish but for a weeknight meal I wanted to make it more substantial.

Our family went apple and pear picking in an organic orchard a few weeks ago, and we still had some D'Anjou pears left. I combined the flavors of our traditional acorn squash filling with orzo pasta, dried figs and fresh firm pears. 

I spiced the filling with nutmeg, cinnamon, sage and thyme. The filling is also sweetened with maple syrup which contrasts nicely with the acidic and earthy taste of the nuts and the squash itself.

This was an easy dish to prepare and it looked really pretty. It came together in less than 45 minutes, including baking time. What I really love about this dish, besides the self-contained edible vessel, is that at least one of my kids will eat a winter squash. Can't beat that!




Sep 30, 2013

food truck finale! chocolate hazelnut crepes

Christian, Danielle and Matthew

I'm "ending" the Month of Vegan Food with the Crepes Bonaparte food truck. This is a French-inspired truck, the brainchild of Christian Murcia, based out of Orange County, another one located in in2insight's backyard. This truck evolved from a business project at University of Southern California - incidentally one of the schools my son is interested in attending.




The truck features a prominent mustache on the front and is nick-named Gaston -- because it is a French gas-guzzler. Now, that is original! The team had true French crepe makers imported and they serve everything on crepes, sweet or savory. 



For my final food truck make-over, I decided on their signature dish - HazzelBerryAnna, hazelnut-chocolate butter, strawberries, bananas and whip cream. I totally zonked the berries, so they don't show up in my crepes, but the rest is acutely represented.

The food truck uses Nutella as the spread, but there are vegan options in health food stores now, and, whether they use hazelnuts or almonds, they are just as delicious. 

As an aside, if you enjoy nuts - hazel, almond, peanut, walnut, pecan, whatever! - don't miss Robin Robertson's new Nut Butter Universe cookbook. I tested for this book and I went totally nuts with amazement. No hazelnut-chocolate spread in the book, but the Too-Easy Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge will make you forget you ever even wanted it. 

Check it out and then check out my recipe for the crepes at the bottom of the post. 
I promise it'll show up eventually.









That's it for the wrap-up of MoFo 2013 from Zsu's Vegan Pantry. If you've been counting along, you will have realized that I failed miserably. I did not just miss the goal of 20 posts, but I missed it by more than half. 

Excuses I am full of'; let me count the ways: (1) we wound up moving this month, right on the heels of moving from Chicago in June. After making the transition from a small apartment to a bigger house, (2) our internet was unavailable for another week. Quickly on the trails of the move and lack of web-service, we found out (3) our neighbors were tenting their house, just a mere three feet from our new abode, for a termite infestation. This meant that the strong breezes of California would waft the toxic fumes over to our open windows. Californians have a distinct disdain for installing air-conditioning in homes, so the open window was not just essential, but for the three days of being tented also poisonous. So, we decided to get out of Dodge. 

As soon as we got back and settled, I was all set to continue with my outlined MoFo food tuck list - only to realize that there were (4) only three more days left in September! Oy vey! Three days, thirteen food trucks. Ahhh, no! Wasn't going to happen. 

So, you see, that as they say, is that. 

I will now go and catch-up on all the MoFo wonderfulness I've missed and find out if the missing GiGi has been located, yet. Hope so!  

Happy MoFo 2013 everyone!