Autumn!

Autumn is steadily rolling into Seattle. The way it happens here is that we're fooled into thinking that it's still summer, usually into the beginning of October. The past couple of weeks have given us temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees and it is lovely.

This week, we were graced with weather ranging from temperate and lovely

to foggy and oddly warm

 

That is all well and good. We're used to that here. It's what we do. Yesterday, it was gorgeous, sunny and warm. Le Boyfriend and I woke up around 6:30 this morning (Saturday sacrilege!) and it was pouring down rain. YES!

While he had plans with the guys to bid farewell to their weekly nerdiness with remote-controlled rock crawler trucks, I had nothing to do but laundry. A lot of laundry. You see, I had no closets at my old place and now I have two closets and that means that I should hang things up and I really don't want to hang things up that have been sitting around in bags for the last 6 weeks, so laundry was a necessity.

Aside from doing laundry, I figured that eating dinner wouldn't be a bad idea. Before heading out for his nerdfest, Nick took me to see the new grocery store that opened two blocks from Terabithia. We'd gone to Metropolitan Market last night, as they seemed to be the only place that said "Why yes! We can help you with that!" when I called around in search of steel cut oats to make for breakfast. They were also very nice and the produce was gorgeous and I spent a very pretty penny there on basics, but I forgot to go back outside and grab one of the acorn squash I'd been eyeing. I was hoping QFC would come through, but especially with a new store, it's always kind of hard to tell if things will be available. Pulling into the parking garage, we were assailed by some wretched music being blared from tinny loudpseakers. Gross. STOP THAT, please! As if the denizens of my slightly hoity-toity neighborhood weren't confused enough by a parking garage with slippery wet floors, there was No Doubt screeching out at them. Passing a couple of stalls, we noticed The Most Ridiculous Thing Ever: valet parking. Valet parking at a grocery store. Cripes, man. Isn't that reaching just a BIT? I mean, maybe if you hasn't designed your parking garage like one of those little handheld mazes that you get in Cracker Jack boxes, people might not need someone else to park their car in a 3"x3" parking spot, yeah? YEAH. Jerks.

Anyway. Squash. I found some. I was considering some butternut noise, but then confirmed with Nick that the time I made The Most Amazing Squash In The World, we'd used acorn squash, so that was the choice. Throwing some boneless pork loin chops, onions, yams, potatoes, garlic and a couple of those gorgeous squash into the basket, we checked out and headed back to the car by way of the second creepiest thing after crustaceans: the glass elevators they have that sort of force you into an awkward staring contest with the person(s) in the other elevator. Ugh. No one NEEDS this stuff, QFC. Knock it off. It's weird.

After bidding Nickolas goodbye, I put the groceries away, started some laundry and then knocked some ideas around for what to do with those pork chops. I was considering roasting them and shredding them with some caramelized onion, then stuffing the squash with that, but decided instead to go outside to the community rosemary bush and snag some delicious herbs. I think I chose wisely.

The Most Delicious Dinner Ever - serves 4

4 boneless thin-cut pork loin chops

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 onion, sliced

1/2 firm apple, chopped (Gala or Fuji work well)

1 large sprig rosemary (6-8"), leaves stripped from the stem

coarse sea salt

ground pepper

2 Red Garnet yams, peeled, cubed and boiled until soft

1 acorn squash, cut in half and roasted until mashable

2T unsalted butter

2 t unsalted butter

1.5 t flour

1 T fresh rosemary leaves, chopped

1/2 cup half & half

coarse salt

Beforehand: sprinkle the chops with sea salt and pepper, then toss with the onion, rosemary, apple and garlic and chill for a few hours in the fridge. Steam the squash and remove the pulp from the shell and set aside. Boil and mash the yams, adding a bit of milk if needed to ensure a smooth consistency.

Lay the chops in a single layer in a baking pan, making sure that some of the apple and onion lay below them. Cover with foil and bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees. While the chops cook, heat the squash and mashed yams in separate pans on the stove, adding 1T butter to each as they heat.

In a small saucepan, melt 2t butter with chopped rosemary. Add flour and cook over low heat until slightly bubbly. Whish in half & half and cook on medium-low until the sauce begins to bubble a bit, then remove from heat.

Remove the chops from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes; they will continue cooking and will be moist without being undercooked. Spoon some of the squash and yam onto a plate and top with a piece of the pork, making sure to include some of the chopped apples, onion and garlic. Drizzle just a little bit of the rosemary cream sauce around and then eat it and enjoy it because it is so incredibly delicious.

To be honest, I'm torn on this dinner. I am a little bit sad because Nick should really be eating this with me, but I am also incredibly prepared to gloat to him about what he missed. I'm not a huge fan of pork, but there was no real fat.While the meat was indeed delicious, I don't think it would have been as good if paired with potatoes or spinach or something. Aside from being waaaaaaaaaaaay tasty, yams are full of good stuff like vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamine and niacin and the acorn squash offers up vitamins B1 and B6, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium and potassium. Hello, nutrients!

This was an amazingly delicious dinner. The taste made me think of walking thorugh crunchy leaves, drinking spiced cider and snuggling down with extra blankets at night.

 I have plenty of both the yams and the squash left over, so ideally I'd like to stuff some homemade ravioli with them later this week, if time permits. Some of the mashed yam may very well make its way onto the top of tomorrrow's steel cut oats. Or maybe it will be dessert. I don't know. It's no secret that I love love LOVE yams and sweet potatoes and that I also adore squash and I'd eat bowls of the stuff for every meal if I could get away with it. Unfortunately, Nick doesn't allow such things and that's probably just as well since I'm half convinced I'd turn orange the way I did when I was little and refused to eat anything but 5lbs of carrots every day. Yeah. My mother was, as you can imagine, incredibly pleased by this. Is it possible to overdose on delicious yams? Please tell me it isn't so.