Three Beautiful Things 01-23-21: Making a Squash Side Dish, Family Dinner, Debbie Called

1.  For our family dinner tonight, Carol assigned me to fix a squash side dish. 

Excellent. 

I just happened to have an acorn squash handy, one that came from a kind of wild squash plot in the very back northeast corner of our yard. I poked around a bit on the World Wide Web, looking for a recipe that included squash and that I thought would travel well in a Pyrex container.

I found one I liked the looks of: pan-fried acorn squash and quinoa bowl. I knew I wouldn't make "bowls" -- too much hassle, but I could make a convenient version of this recipe.

I fiddled a bit with the recipe. I substituted cauliflower for potatoes. I pan fried the thin squash slices in butter, not olive oil. I seasoned the carrots with cinnamon, the squash slices with allspice, and the cauliflower with za'atar. I followed the recipe by roasting the carrots and cauliflower in the oven and pan-frying the squash. I had just enough quinoa on hand to make just a bit less than the recipe called for. 

The recipe also called for a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper. 

I had used quite a bit of olive oil to prepare the carrots and cauliflower for roasting, so I cut back on the olive oil in the dressing and used pear balsamic vinegar, inspired by the undertones of the Sauvignon Blanc I was sipping on while cooking. 

It turned out that my experiments with the spices and the vinegar were sound. 

Everyone enjoyed my offering.

2. We all got together at Carol and Paul's around 4:30 for dinner. Carol made us each a tasty Whisky Sour to start and we had crackers with shrimp, cocktail sauce, and cream cheese for an appetizer.

Carol roasted a rosemary chicken and potatoes, accompanied by a delicious sauce for dinner. Christy added a vegetable tray with dill dip. I brought my squash side. Carol and Paul popped open a bottle of buttery Chardonnay and we rounded out dinner with Christy's boozy and delicious pear crisp a la mode and a short narrow glass of Christy's pear liqueur. 

It was a most convivial dinner. Our conversation bounced all over the place, in a relaxed way, as we talked about cooking, current events, local news, and other things. 

It was a comforting and easy time together.

3. Since Debbie and I live in different time zones, three hours apart, I was pleasantly surprised when, at 8:30 PST/11:30 EST, my phone rang and it was Debbie calling -- and there was no emergency! 

Debbie had a lot on her mind about reading she's been doing and we shared our impressions of Inauguration Day and chatted informally about business matters -- taxes and money, mainly -- all of it easy to discuss. We also talked tentatively, kind of dreamily, about the year 2021 and what it might look like later this year, depending on how we feel about travel. We kept it very tentative, but put a few "what ifs" out between us, while at the same time expressing patience and caution since so much remains unknown about the pandemic. 

Debbie's life in New York is full of things going on in a household with three adults and two children. There is a lot to be attended to. My life in Kellogg is placid, without bursts of activity. No one is coming and going. I don't have anything to figure out most days. We are living in very different worlds and we both seem, if not content, certainly accepting of our current arrangement and unruffled by not knowing how long we'll continue to live apart, how long Debbie will be helping out with Adrienne and Josh's family.