Butternut Squash

Butternut Squash Tart with Rosemary Crust

January 16, 2016 by Charles Leave a Comment

Picking a recipe is never easy. There are thousands of recipes on any given website and among any collection of cookbooks. And then, when cooking for a crowd, things get only more complicated, as more and more tastes, allergies, and preferences must be accounted for.

Among the vast collections of recipes, this one stood out almost immediately. I love a good homemade crust. Caitlin loves a good gourd. The addition of fresh rosemary (from our own herb garden out back) was an additional selling point. Beyond those considerations, …

Weeknight Spaghetti with Roasted Butternut Squash

November 6, 2011 by Charles 3 Comments

This meal answers that important, incessant, weekday question.

After braving our respective routes — Caitlin, the Red Line, I, the Beltway — we arrive home around 7:00 p.m., tired from the day’s activities. After a quick moment of reprieve, we often head down to the apartment gym to get some much-needed exercise.

Once we’re back upstairs, the question rears its head. The question that creeps into our minds every night, demanding an immediate answer. The question is bandied about …

Cincinnati Chili

October 28, 2010 by Charles 1 Comment

Every city it seems, has its signature dish. In Boston, it’s that eponymous Cream Pie; in Baltimore, it’s crab cakes. For Philadelphia, it’s cheese steak, and in Saint Louis, toasted ravioli. In my home town, rich in culinary traditions, it could be any number of dishes, from gumbo to jambalaya, to po’boys and muffulettas, to beignets and pralines.

Here in Cincinnati, chili carries the day, with residents swearing their allegiance to one of two local brands. Just as I-75 divides the city into East Cincinnati and West, chili divides the city between Gold Star and Skyline.

But after two months living here, I still had not tried either of the nearly ubiquitous chili shops. So when Caitlin came to Cincinnati …

Butternut Squash Layer Cake

April 20, 2010 by Charles 6 Comments

It’s easy to get side-tracked in this modern world. Text messages, phone calls, and e-mails demand our constant attention. Or, as it may be, distract our attention from the tasks at hand. Answering e-mails, flowing with the speed and strength of an angry river, evokes a triage center, with each incoming e-mail mentally sorted by its degree of urgency. Phone calls and text messages are no better, and the dangers associated with driving and phoning are well-documented.

Video games and the Internet are different species of the same beast. Punching controller buttons will always be more entertaining than punching the clock. And when the project at hand is growing tiresome, the browser icon is always a quick click away. There is always a headline to read or a score to check. There is always something out there, in need of your attention.

I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow this post got neglected. I should, of course, distinguish between…

Butternut Squash Pancakes

January 5, 2010 by Charles 3 Comments

After making cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, I needed to find a use for all the leftover sauce. When I noticed the leftover butternut squash purée sitting idly in its tupperware container, I decided to kill two birds with one stone.

I based this recipe off my earlier recipe for pumpkin pancakes, added the cranberry sauce, and called it …