I’ve been looking for interesting things to do with the surplus winter squash we’ve been getting for weeks and weeks from our CSA. I’ve made Elise’s Pumpkin Bread, with the addition of a streusel topping, for the folks at the office several times. The other obvious thing to do with the squash is soup, but I’m not too fond of traditional sweet squash soups with cinnamon and pumpkin pie spices. Then Deb over at Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for Black Bean Pumpkin Soup, which sounded awfully good. The problem was, when I went to make it today, I hadn’t paid much attention to the ingredients list, so instead of 3 cans of black beans, I had 1 can of pinto beans, and instead of canned tomatoes, I had tomato paste, and instead of cumin, I had curry powder, and then I wanted to experiment with this new smoked pimento I got the other day, so the recipe underwent a bit of a metamorphosis. Like the Black Bean Pumpkin Soup that was the inspiration for this recipe, this is squash soup in which the squash is not the main character, but plays an important supporting role. The tomato paste and the smoked pimento give it a richness and a depth, and a deliciously subtle spice.

Smoky Spanish Soup

3 or 4 T. butter
2 medium onions, chopped
3 or 4 ribs of celery, chopped
2 t. curry powder
2 t. smoked pimento
1/2 t. black pepper
1 can of beans
1 small can of tomato paste
1 1/2 cups pumpkin or winter squash puree
4 cups water
10-12 oz. cooked ham, diced small
3 T. balsamic vinegar

Saute the celery and onions in butter with the curry powder, smoked paprika, and black pepper. When the onions have softened and are beginning to brown, add the beans and tomato paste. Mash up the beans a bit in the can with a fork before tossing them in. Add the squash and the water and simmer for 10-15 minutes for the flavors to meld. After the soup has simmered a bit, add the ham and vinegar, and its ready to serve.

Delicious!

This simple, hungry-man recipe should please even the manliest of men.

Here it is, in the words of my husband:

Bacon, Chicken, Mushroom, and Tomato Sandwich, or BCMT

I love pig in the form of bacon. It’s easy to cook, and when cooked first, creates a scrumptious pan greasing forming the basis of a filling, cardiac arresting help-I-need-an-artery-drill meal.

Non-warning: If you know you shouldn’t eat fattening food, you won’t listen to my warnings about how bad this meal is for you, so I won’t pretend to be your mother and scold you for drooling over this. For those of you on the opposite end of the spectrum who look like Skeletor, put down that cigarette and wrap that apron around your 10″ waist. Time to fatten your skinny ass up. (And if you’re a really skinny woman, remember some of us guys like some meat between the skin and bone we put into our mouths. Eat two of these, please, for the love of Karen Carpenter.)

Simple I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-A-Recipe for BCMT

• 1 Lb. of High Quality Pig Bacon (No Beggin’ Strips, no pre-cooked bacon, and please please don’t even think porkofu.)
• 2 pieces of boneless Organic Chicken Thigh Meat
• 2 Handfuls of Mushrooms, or two big Portabella mushrooms
• 4 slices of bread (yipee for gluten free bread that actually tastes good)
• 2 fat slices of your favorite cheese. I recommend an aged white cheddar.
• 1 organic sliced tomato

Ideally Optional Ingredient

• 1 Really black, super seasoned iron skillet

To prepare:

1. Perform any celebratory dance you like over your fresh meat.

2. Prepare your skillet. If you’re using iron, pre-heat that baby to a medium temperature for about a minute.

3. Lay the bacon out in the skillet. (Remember, undercooked pork = trichinosis. Cook your meat.)

4. Cook all bacon, and leave bacon grease in the skillet.

5. Put cooked bacon aside.

6. Gently place chicken into the skillet with the bacon grease. Cook the chicken until done. (If you actually needed that warning about trichinosis, here’s your warning to avoid an E.Coli pie of undercooked chicken.)

7. Remove chicken when cooking is complete. The chicken shouldn’t have any pink coloring left in the meat.

8. Put the mushrooms in remaining bacon-chicken grease in skillet.

9. Remove cooked limp, brown mushrooms.

10. Drop tomatoes into bacon-chicken-mushroom drippings in skillet and cook.

11. Remove tomatoes, place cheese into bacon-chicken-mushroom-tomato drippings in skillet and cook. If you’ve never fried cheese like this, it’s not hard. Just make sure that you have a good spatula ready to scrape the cheese off your skillet.

12. Remove cooked cheese and place on top of the chicken thighs.

13. Place bread in the skillet with the bacon-chicken-mushroom-tomato-cheese drippings and cook. Rub bread around, collect all drippings.

14. Once the bread is fried to your liking, layer sandwich in this order: bread, chicken with cheese, tomatoes, bacon, bread. Repeat.

Recipe makes two sandwiches.

This is a very simple and easy dinner that’s popular with my husband, even when he’s in a low-carb phase.

For the dish in the photo I used pork bratwurst from our local Whole Foods butcher counter, which is made fresh there every morning. Any good sausage will do.

This is enough for two.

Sausage with Onions

2 good quality sausages
1 medium or 1/2 a large onion, cut in quarters and sliced
1 or 2 small sweet peppers (optional)

Toss the sausages in a skillet and chop the onions, tossing them in with the sausages as they’re chopped. The pork fat should begin to render into the pan if you’re using pork. If you’re using something lower in fat, you may need to drizzle a little oil in the pan. As the onions and sausages cook, chop a few peppers and throw them in as well. Turn the sausages after the first side browns.

Add a few tablespoons of water to the pan and cover till the onions are very soft, then remove the lid and allow the water to evaporate. The onions will start to carmelize once the water is gone. When there’s a nice brown glaze in the pan, pull the sausages out and slice into rounds. Toss them back into the pan and the sausages will pick up the nice brown glaze from the pan.

Wheat-friendly folks might serve this with some crusty bread, and sit-down-to-dinner types might make rice and a green vegetable, but we don’t eat much bread, nor do we really ever sit down to a normal meal. More likely I’ll bring my husband a plate of whatever single dish we are eating and sit down on the floor with our laptops and our food, and have a living room picnic.