29.12.08: Sweet leek and turkey pie re-run plus butternut squash remix

See that? That's called a new camera, folks. And it has a 'food' setting! We likey. What say you?

She heated up the turkey and sweet leek pie, and tried to revive the other half of the bland butternut squash with some ras-al-hanout and more maple syrup. Nigella's wasabi-lime dressing stood by to liven up the remnants of last night's salad, refreshed with more leaves and some pear.

HE SAYS: Please, sir, can I have some more? Well yesh you can, and it will be even tastier having rested overnnight in the fridge. The squash was better then the last go-round and helped add seasonal cheer to the already very winter-warming dish. The wasabi dressing always makes any salad that little bit better, so no need to add anything new to my latest salad review.

SHE SAYS: All good for the second go-round, and my I add the cliche of 'maybe even better after being in the fridge'. Haven't had the wasabi lime in a while, and my tastebuds greeted it with glee. Less gleeful was their response to the butternut - maybe this was just a bad gourd.

26.12.08: Quorn, black bnz, red cabbage, and baked butternut squash

Can you believe we cooked at all the day after Christmas? We're saving the considerable turkey leftovers for something special, you'll see. So on with the dinner show: She heated up some leftover balck bnz and another container o' red cabbage, panfried some lemon-pepper quorn escalopes, and baked a butternut squash with a touch of maple syrup.

Squash seeds toasted with sage, celery salt, black pepper and oregano made a fine snacky accompaniment, while a dutiful salad of radish and leaves held upt he raw food portion of the programme.

SHE SAYS: Wow. That was some seriously bland butternut, even though it got a typical treatment of olive oil, maple syrup and salt 'n' pepper. Puzzling. Bnz had a good second outing, at least, and the red cabbage did its usual sugar 'n' spice number with a touch of the tart about it. Can't help but love crunchy chickeny quorn, and the seasoned squash seeds almost made up for their ho-hum counterpart.

HE SAYS: Yes, a shame about the squash, I think skinning and cubing it before roasting it delivers better results. Other then that, all was good: the bnz retained their herbiness, the red cabbage flexed its sweet, vinegary muscle and the quorn added the crunch to the plate. The salad was a plain palate-cleansing affair but it was the squash seeds that were too fantastic to describe in a few words, so I won't even attempt it.

04.12.08: Spelt penne pesto pasta

He baked a butternut squash beforehand and defrosted some pesto. She cooked it all up with some portobello mushrooms and thus re-created a squash and mushroom, pesto, spelt penne pasta extravaganza. The bnz and hazelnut salad from last night nuzzled up beside it.

SHE SAYS: Meh. It was ok. The squash mushed up in the pan and didn't exactly stir my appetite. To be fair, I had come home and devoured more smoked salmon than was wise, straight out of the pack, so I really wasn't hungry. The pesto was as deeply delightful as always but I could only toy with my fork and look forward to a speshy lunch. The salad was another overnite champion, staying fresh and crunchy, so I added it to my lunchbox for the next day with quiet anticipation.

HE SAYS: Not the prettiest pasta dish She has ever made but pretty tasty nonetheless. The squash was baked with just olive oil and salt n' pepper allowing, the natural sweetness to come thru and mix with the savouriness of the pesto nicely. The spelt pasta was definitely less heavy on my tum then the usual white variety, and, coupled with the bnz salad, made for delish and healthy grub.

15.11.08: Pesto pasta with carrot and pumpkin seed salad

He remembered to defrost the fresh sundried tomato pesto He'd made a few weeks ago and She came up with tonight's dinner plan as well as cookin' and stirrin' the pesto, some spelt penna pasta, grilled portobello mushrooms, grilled butternut squash and parmesan shavings. The salad was a concise affair: julienned carrots and roasted pumpkin seeds on a bed of mixed leaves. The rest of the wasabi dressing stood by to help out.

HE SAYS: She added some white wine to the mix and it helped add a more rounded, intense flavour to the ever so rich and satisfying milieu. The mushrooms were meaty and the squash was an inspired choice with its sweet syrupy deliciousness shining thru. The pesto was a pretty good batch; it freezes well and defrosts in seconds (okay, a few hours). It's miles above the oily stuff available in stores. Roasted pumpkin seeds make any salad better but especially this one. (Paired with its orange cousin, the humble but brilliant carrot, it seemed to try a little harder to impress).

SHE SAYS: I was slightly afraid the butternut would be a bit too heavy with the pasta, but it simply added a nice Thanksgiving-like note to the proceedings. I only salt 'n' peppered the squash this time before roasting, and it was still amazingly sweet, proving the perfect foil for the soy-sauce drizzled mushrooms and mmmworthy tangy, garlicky pesto. (This sounds like too high a pile of flava-flavs, but it all balanced in an autumal savoury way). Would def. pair butternut and mushrooms again. Salad offered a similarly sweet, roasty flavours, but added crunch and bite.

20.09.08: Roast butternut squash, Middle Eastern spinach, quorn, and fig salad

She broke a longstanding prejudice against dealing with giant gourds (hard to cut, too long to cook, etc) and baked a butternut with butter, maple syrup and ras-al-hanout; tried a tempting recipe for spiced spinach with yoghurt and pine nuts from NYT; flipped some lemon-pepper quorn fillets in the pan; and took advantage of a timely fig sale to sophistimatise a salad in which sweetfire beetroot played a supporting role. Bonus: a sprinkle of toasted squash seeds.

SHE SAYS: The spinach dish was fantastically garlicky, rich in allspice intensity, and silky on the tongue, but 'serves three'? Who are they kidding? We barely had a little blob each! I knew that one bag of spinach would likely shrivel to Borrower-size portions, but I have a bad habit of trusting a recipe first time around. Fun fact: the laughingly simple garlic yoghurt is a dead ringer for ranch dressing, kid ye not. We spooned ample amounts over the quorn and even drizzled it over the salad.

The butternut squash is the real star, though. The Bart brand ras-al-hanout is v nutmeggy, with a touch of rose petal, and undercuts the vegginess of the squash just so. This early crop was so tender we could eat it skin and all. Next time (and there will be many next times), I'll try baking with olive oil to see if we can replicate the luxuriousness with a slightly healthier fat.

The salty, toasted seeds of the squash were less effective in salad than they were when eaten alone out of a handy little bowl (frequently); but the fig and beetroot played nicely together in sweet-tart harmony.

HE SAYS: Mmmmm, the squash was absolutely devine, cooked perfectly; soft, moist, creamy and with the maple syrup, delish. The garlic sauce was also fantastic, very light but very moreish. I wished there was more of the spinach but managed to spread it around the plate enough to combine with mouthfuls of the crunchy quorn and sweet, sweet squash. It was nice to have the figs in attendance once again in the salad (after what seems like a long time) and they worked perfectly paired with my favorite root vegatable of the year, the beetroot.

12.07.08: Out to Mildred's

After schlepping thru the end of the summer sales, We met up with temporary transplant Joe before his departure back to the States for good food and good times at the cosiest place in Soho: Mildred's. Sharing was definitely on the menu: chargrilled artichoke crostini with lemon aioli, plus a warm butternut squash and blue cheese filo tart started off our gourmet veggie adventure.

He and Joe were burrito brothers, each tucking into a generous wrap of re-fried beans, corn and red pepper topped with tomato lime salsa, guacamole, smoked cheddar and sour cream - served with leaf salad, of course...
...while She savoured the sunblushed tomato and buffalo mozzarella risotto cakes served with wilted spinach, green beans and grape mustard cream sauce.

HE SAYS: After last nights gruel this meal put the world right once again. The appetizers were tasty, not overpowering in seasoning but delicate in a good way. The burrito was hefty, saucy and packed with creamy good stuff. A good night out I thinks.

SHE SAYS: It was hard to keep the fork from travelling over to the starter plates - the artichoke and aioli were esp moreish, the salad leaves flimsy (but fresh!) excuses for mopping up mayo. The maple-roasted squash mooshed up nicely with the tangy blue cheese, not to be sneered at any day. But my main was the star, creamy and crispy, with hints of healthfulness from the sprouts on top and the perfectly steamed green bnz, not to mention the silky flags of spinach. The sauce was not overly piquant, and the risotto had plenty of hearty tomato kick. Happy sigh.

13.05.08: Pork piccata and butternut squash + sweet potatoes

Comfort food: Ramsay's veal piccata in pork chop form, with a capery, garlicky, herby creme fraiche - white wine sauce accompanied by butternut squash and sweet potato cubes (look familiar?) spiced with ras-al-hanout. The simplest of salads with Sweetfire beetroot looks on.

SHE SAYS: Saucy! Great flavour, but my chops were pretty tough - took forever to brown. Mmm, me love the capers. V. pleased with my idea for seasoning the veg cubes - I'd made a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom, but it was way too strong. Then the ras caught my eye, and now I know.

HE SAYS: What a lovely sauce, of course! Could've been a little more liquidy, but still delishy. The butternut squash and sweet 'tator cubes worked well in their new boiled incarnation but the chops were too tough to call this meal a Tuesday nite classic. Sweetfire beetroot never fails to dress up any salad, end of.